Violinist Favors Philippine Kundimans

December 18, 2006

LOS ANGELES—(U.S. ASIAN WIRE)--Passion. Confession. Kundiman. An evening of Classical Serenades from the Philippines will fill the Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, January 12, 2007.

Violinist Stephen Y. S. Shey, accompanied by Kanako Nishikawa, will woo audiences in his first performance in a west coast city. The event, sponsored by the Asian Division Friends Society of the Library of Congress http://www.lcasianfriends.org in cooperation with the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles, is the first in a planned series of fundraisers in 2007 for the development of a Filipino American Collection as part of a larger Asian American Documentation Studies proposed for the Library of Congress.

In 2003, Shey performed before a packed Sorenson Theater in Wellesley, MA. Midway through his 90-minute high school recital, he introduced the Philippine Kundimans. One could hear a pin drop just before waves of applause filled the theater and two standing ovations greeted his finale number, Bayan Ko. There were 5 Filipinos in the audience and they were stunned and teary-eyed.

Shey, an American of Chinese descent, is a student at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is currently under the tutelage of Prof. Mark Lakirovich. He has been playing Philippine classical serenades and other kundiman (arrangements by the late Maestro Redentor Romero), since he was captivated by Antonio Molina's Hating Gabi.

Shey has included a Kundiman Suite in all his performances. His most notable was at the 2004 dedication ceremony of the Philippine Pillar at the National World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. Flanked by then Ambassador Albert del Rosario and Madame Gretchen del Rosario, he serenaded the Filipino World War II veterans with an Ilokano folk song, No Dua Duaem Pay and Bayan Ko, both Romero arrangements. He was a featured soloist at a concert in Stockholm at the invitation of Philippine Ambassador Victoria Bataclan of the Nordic States; and in Quezon City at the James B. Reuter Theater of St. Paul University. Other concerts include the Heritage Series at the Philippine Embassy, Washington, D.C., at MetroWest International Concert Series in Framingham, MA; and at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. In Manila, music critic, Rosalinda Orosa praised him as an unusual ambassador of Philippine music.

Call (818) 307-0177 for General Patronage tickets at $25. For more information on the January 12 performance in Los Angeles, email sheyconcert7@yahoo.com.

Contact:
(818)307-0177
sheyconcert7@yahoo.com