The San Mateo Asian Pacific American Heritage Celebration is an event organized by four nonprofit organizations. These organizations include AACP, San Mateo OCA, San Mateo JACL, and the Downtown San Mateo Association.
This year we feature over 30 exhibits, exhibitors, vendors, presentations, and nonprofit organizations. Part of our goal was to add more interesting content that you may not find at your typical community celebration.
Come and experience the most diverse Asian and Pacific Islander American event in San Mateo County and perhaps the whole Bay Area.
Here are some brief descriptions of the entertainment we have lined up for this year's event.
Project Garuda
(Description by Project Garuda)
The core of Project Garuda are four amazing musicians: Ignatius (keyboard), Gent (guitar), William (bass), and Willy (drums). These four people are so talented that their music can't help but attract more musicians and singers to join in. For this event, we also have Alvan (violin), Ardi (guitar), and Felice (guitar, vocal). Ingrid and Putu's beautiful voices are already famous in our circle of friends, and this time we also have Vero, Felice, Sylvia, Widya, Nick, and Mira for vocals.
We want to introduce our rich Indonesian music culture through our performances. It starts with "Bengawan Solo," a beautiful, very famous song about the longest river in Java Island. It's well-known in other Asian countries and is now part of best known Chinese oldies. Using violin to represent the flowing melody, this song showcases Indonesia's famous keroncong style. Then we have two songs from Chrisye, one of Indonesia's most-decorated pop singer. "Kala Cinta Menggoda" (When Love Seduces) and "Cintaku" (My Love). From these two songs, the audience can enjoy the gradual change from classic keroncong style to Indonesian pop style that are easy-going, fun, and energetic. We will also perform several other songs which titles will not be revealed to let you enjoy our music with a little bit of the element of surprise! For our finale, we have "Yogyakarta," a song from Kla Project, who is also a well-known Indonesian pop group. We hope we do this song justice and you all can truly enjoy why this song is very popular.
Ann Bowler
annmartinbowler.net
Ann taught kindergarten through third grade for many years before beginning her career as a writer. She is the author of 14 children's books including Adventures of the Treasure Fleet: China Discovers the World. This amazing but true story recalls the 15th century voyages of Chinese Admiral Zheng He and his fleet which sailed from China to Southeast Asia, Arabia, and Africa, 85 years before Columbus came to America. Beginning in 1405, Admiral Zheng led more than 300 gigantic, brightly painted ships across the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean and all the way to the distant coast of Africa. The admiral and his crew battled pirates and raging storms, and were amazed by the people and ways of life in distant lands.
Ann has also written Gecko's Complaint, a classic Balinese folktale which highlights Indonesia's lovely culture. She has written several books about nature including, Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, Seasons of Color, Hiking the Appalachian, and Jane Godall, a Brave and True Heart. Ann is now serving as the ambassador for Room to Read, a non-profit organization building schools and libraries in some of the poorest parts of the world.
California Youth Chinese Symphony (CYCS)
uscycs.org
Young musicians from CYCS will perform music with Chinese traditional instruments and present it in a lively way.
California Youth Chinese Symphony (CYCS) is a non-profit organization and has a mission of promoting musical diversity and enriching cultural lives of our communities by introducing Chinese traditional music and instruments.
CYCS currently offers different levels of Chinese instrument lessons from beginning to intermediate students. Students can choose from different instruments including the pipa (Chinese lute), erhu (two-string violin), guzheng (lap harp), dizi (bamboo flute), sheng (mouth organ), suona (Chinese oboe), yangqin (dulcimer), konghou (double-string harp), and Chinese percussion.
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Advanced students will participate in orchestra and ensemble training with many opportunities to perform in community events as well as concert performances.
Thia Konda Okasan and Me Inc.
okasanandme.com
Shamisen is a 3-string traditional Japanese folk instrument somewhat similar in shape and size to a banjo.
Thia Konda has played the shamisen for 26 years as a member of Matsutoya Kai. Three years ago she started to experiment with the different genres of the shamisen. The shamisen is played in jazz, pop and original songs and arrangements.
Charlie Chin
chsa.org
Uncle Toisan is the story of a Chinese immigrant who immigrated to the United States in 1939, was drafted into the American Army during World War II, worked in the Chinese Hand Laundries and Restaurants, and then witnessed the Civil Rights Movement.
A "History Alive!" performance is composed of three parts
1. The character talks about his life and times.
2. The audience can ask the presenter questions and he answers them in character.
3. The presenter comes out of character and speaks about the character in the context of today.
Charlie Chin is a writer, musician, historian, and Tai Chi Instructor. He currently holds the position of Artist-in-Residence at the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco. He has published two children's books, founded the Jataka Puppet Theater, and in 2009 received an Irvine Trust grant to present his History Alive! presentation of "Uncle Toisan" to audiences across the Bay Area.
Filipino-American Association of Foster City Choir
faafc.com
This year the Filipino-American Association of Foster City or FAAFC is celebrating its 30th anniversary. The Association's choir has performed numerous times during the many years that FAAFC has served its communities. This time with them are children from FAAFC's Tagalog classes, who at the beginning did not know any Tagalog words, but as you will witness in this performance, demonstrate how much they have learned!
Urisawe
urisawe.com
Samdo Suljanggu
Samdo Suljanggu is created by juxtaposing the essential rhythms of past janggu virtuosi from the three main provinces of Korea. Suljanggu, which is a name used to call a piece that is only played using janggu (hourglass shaped drum), had been played in a traditional Poongmul by a leading janggu player (Sangjanggu) of the group to show off his original style of dance and form, however, the Samdo Suljanggu is performed in a seated position, naturally putting more emphasis on the dynamics and the refinement of the overall musical sound.
Samdo Samulnori
'Samulnori' is a music played with four traditional Korean percussion instruments, Kwengari, Jing, Janggu and Buk. It was created in 1978 basing its roots on the rhythms of Poongmul, Korean traditional percussion. Among all the Samulnori pieces, Samdo Samulnori is perhaps the most well known one. It is different from other Samulnori's such as Youngnam or Utdari in the sense that while other pieces are based on rhythms of a single region, Samdo Samulnori is created by combining rhythms from all over the Korea. Samdo Samulnori guides the audience through the three large regions of Korea giving a wonderful taste of the unique rhythms of each region.
Urisawe, translated as "Our Movement", is an organization dedicated to promoting traditional Korean culture through performing arts. Established in 2002 by Me Sook Ko, a professional teacher, Urisawe participated in numerous performances and activities and continues to expand as a traditional Korean culture group representing the bay area. Urisawe offers many classes on traditional Korean dances and drumming, including, Poongmul, geom-mu (sword dance), tal-chum (mask dance), Samulnori, and more. Urisawe is open to anyone who is interested in learning about traditional Korean performing arts.
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