(upbeat jazzy music) - [Host] In partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, WHYY presents the following program.

(audience applauds) - Aloha everyone and welcome.

My name is Emilie Kealani Suarez.

I'm the curator of KAPWA, which was my master's project, but quickly turned into my passion project and a spark for advocacy that I'm hoping to work into the rest of my performing career.

And so tonight we programmed a multidisciplinary recital representing Asian and AAPI artists of the Bengali, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, and Tongan communities with musical selections in Bisayan Ilocano, Hindi, Hawaiian, Mandarin, and Tagalog.

We're very happy to share a program of new works, two of them specifically composed for KAPWA.

And tonight you'll be the first to hear them in the world premiere.

You'll hear from a lot of the composers tonight about their pieces.

I'm so grateful to have in our audience two Filipino artists that I know a lot of our community looks up to.

We have Mr. Michael Dadap, who is the composer of our guitar solo and one of our vocal pieces, as well as Miss Evelyn Mandac, the first Filipino to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.

(audience applauds) Thank you all of you for coming and supporting this space where we can create and cultivate a sense of a shared identity and community.

Enjoy our show.

(audience applauds) (marker scraping) (gentle classical music) (artists singing in foreign language) (artists singing in foreign language continues) (artists singing in foreign language continues) (artists singing in foreign language continues) (artists singing in foreign language continues) (artists singing in foreign language continues) (gentle classical music continues) - The next election you're about to see is an original composition by Adrian Wong, performed by Hongrui Ren.

(marker scraping) (Hongrui Ren singing in foreign language) (intense classical music) (Hongrui Ren singing in foreign language continues) (Hongrui Ren singing in foreign language continues) (Hongrui Ren classical music) (Hongrui Ren singing in foreign language continues) (Hongrui Ren singing in foreign language continues) (intense classical music) (Hongrui Ren singing in foreign language continues) (gentle classical music) (audience applauds) - Our next selection is an art song in Mandarin performed by our bass baritone, Yulin.

(intense classical music) (Yulin singing in foreign language) (Yulin singing in foreign language continues) (Yulin singing in foreign language continues) (Yulin singing in foreign language continues) (Yulin singing in foreign language continues) - Wasn't that such a beautiful performance?

Coming up next we have our KAPWA commission and world premiere of Amane Sakaguchi "Echoes in the Rice Field".

She'll be playing the traditional Japanese shamisen along with our violinist, Emmalena Huning.

You'll also hear sound bites from our round table discussion with Glimmerglass panelists about being Asian in the arts.

(marker scraping) - [Panelist] We're clamoring for representation, but since we don't have a voice, it's so hard to do it.

(gentle music) - [Panelist] You know, you get in that like mix of not being Korean enough for not being white enough and you don't really know where you fit in.

- [Panelist] I very much identify with that, of sometimes being like, you don't really belong anywhere.

You know, you're not enough of one.

And I feel like that informs my experience more than anything is also never having a feeling of belonging.

- [Panelist] Yeah.

- [Panelist] I feel when I speak English, I'm a different person.

I have different personalities when I speak English.

- [Panelist] I found myself actually trying to assimilate more into the US culture and trying my very best to hide the Filipino part of me because I feel like that's how I would be taken more seriously.

(gentle classical music) - [Panelist] I just had to one day like accept that just because I don't speak Tongan doesn't mean I'm less Tongan than someone else, you know?

'cause the blood is there and the blood doesn't lie.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (upbeat gentle music) - Hey, coming up next is our Filipino set.

The first one is a guitar solo.

The second one is another KAPWA commission and world premier entitled "The Pinays Within Us".

And then the third is a Filipino classic called "Dahil Sa'yo".

(marker scraping) - Hello everyone, my name is Johnny Incipido and I am the composer for the next piece.

I'm based in San Francisco, and this is actually my first time here on the East Coast.

(audience applauds) (Johnny laughs) So then, what you're about to hear next is actually gonna be the premiere of the piece "The Pinays Within Us", which was commissioned by Emilie and I wrote this piece as an expression of the Filipino woman, pulling from some of Emilie's own lived experiences.

The first song is actually paying homage to her lola and the lullaby that she used to sing to her when she was a child.

The second song is an appreciation to her mother as she has lived far away from home.

And the third song is kind of like a power ballad, expressing the internal and the external love that we have for the pinay or the Filipina woman.

The third song I actually, when I was writing it, I thought about all the Filipina women that are in my life and thinking about most particularly one of my sisters who actually took care of my brother before he passed away this summer.

And so each song is actually sang in a different Filipino language that is connected to both Emilie and I.

There's Ilocano, there's Bisayan and then there's Tagalog/English.

And although neither of us are fluent in the pieces, we actually reached out to our village, our family, and our friends, and they all helped write the text for this piece.

And so I kind of think of this piece as kind of an exemplification of the Filipino spirit, which is a collective unity and action.

And so without further ado, "The Pinays Within Us".

(marker scraping) (classical music) ♪ Don't look now, my baby girl ♪ ♪ Don't look now, my baby girl ♪ (Emilie singing in foreign language) ♪ Don't look now, my baby girl ♪ ♪ Don't look now, my baby girl ♪ (Emilie singing in foreign language) (gentle music) ♪ Don't look now, my baby girl ♪ ♪ Don't look now, my baby girl ♪ (gentle music) (Emilie singing in foreign language) ♪ My baby girl ♪ (gentle music) (Emilie singing in foreign language) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) ♪ When the moon has been swallowed ♪ ♪ And the song has gone cold ♪ ♪ And the petals fall to the ground ♪ ♪ By the wind that is gone ♪ (Emilie singing in foreign language) (gentle music) ♪ The ocean flows down my back ♪ (Emilie singing in foreign language) ♪ And I have my families ♪ ♪ And I know they all love me ♪ (Emilie singing in foreign language) ♪ My hands create, I knead, I grow ♪ ♪ The waves of peace (singing in foreign language) ♪ ♪ There is no place I know that's better than this home ♪ ♪ This love is strong and my heart is full ♪ (gentle music) (Emilie singing in foreign language) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) ♪ And I have my families ♪ ♪ And I know they all love me ♪ (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) ♪ My hands create, I knead, I grow ♪ ♪ And the waves of peace (singing in foreign language) ♪ ♪ There, I cannot find a place better than this home ♪ ♪ This love is strong and my heart is full ♪ (intense classical music) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (marker scraping) (gentle music) (Ross singing in foreign language) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (audience applauds) (gentle music) (Ross singing in foreign language) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) (Ross singing in foreign language continues) - Up next are two Hindi pieces.

The first is an obo selection, and the second is an art song.

(gentle music) (market scraping) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (marker scraping) (gentle music) (Skikta singing in foreign language) (Shikta singing in foreign language continues) (Shikta singing in foreign language continues) (Shikta singing in foreign language continues) (gentle music) (marker scraping) (gentle music) (intense classical music) (Emilie singing in foreign language) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (Emilie singing in foreign language continues) (triumphant music) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (people whispering indistinctly) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Thank you.

(audience applauds and cheers) (gentle music continues) (artists giggling) (gentle music continues)