A showcase of Filipino creativity and talent in the performing and visual arts will be unveiled to the Australian public for the first time in one spectacular venue in Western Sydney.
The ‘Philippine Art Festival’ will be a landmark celebration of fine Philippine artistry to be held on Saturday, 20 July 2013 at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in Penrith NSW.
The Festival will feature an exhibition of the best works of five Filipino-Australian artists and one visiting Filipino artist to be inaugurated at 5:00pm on the day. The event will culminate in the Australian debut performance of the acclaimed all-Filipino vocalist group The Filipino Tenors at 7:00pm.
The Philippine Consul General in NSW, Hon. Anne Jalando-on Louis, will open the Festival.
The Festival will be the first of its kind to be held in the country promoting Philippine visual and performing arts.
Following a series of successful performances in Manila and their 2012 Aliw Award win, The Filipino Tenors will be flown in from Manila to delight Sydneysiders with their distinctive style melding classical and contemporary genres.
The Tenors will not only aim to reach out to Filipino-Australians with nostalgia through their heartfelt rendition of much loved Filipino songs but also share their unique repertoire with the wider Australian community.
With an exciting line-up of pop, ballads, novelty, Broadway, inspirational and traditional songs – all to be sung in the Tenors’ signature style – the show promises to be a rare and enchanting musical night.
Miguel Castro, a soloist, an artist and Teatro Gantimpala stage actor who is one of the Tenors says,“Our repertoire will comprise an exciting variety – including Kundimans, sentimental ballads and much more. We will be singing new songs, all-time favourites and current hits, as well as new interpretations of covers.
“The Philippines has so much good music, we intend to make Australia hear it and like it. As for the Filipinos in the audience, they will surely miss home with the songs we have prepared”, Castro adds.
Before the curtains rise for the Tenors, the foyer of the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre will be displaying the treasured collections of six prominent Filipino artists.
These artists are: Alfredo Ding Roces, an accomplished writer and painter of abstract pieces and figurative imagery; Edd Aragon, an editorial and strip cartoonist and caricaturist who worked for The Australian, Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald; Deborah Ruiz Wall, a photographer, poet and writer who received the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to the community in the areas of social justice, reconciliation and multiculturalism; Ala Paredes, a young Sydney-based illustrator and designer who studied at the Sydney Design Centre where she was awarded for one of her illustrations; Nectar Soliman, a multi-faceted visual arts professional, independent curator and producer; and Tenor Miguel Castro, a papercut visual artist who has recently concluded his own exhibition in Sydney and Manila.
Philippine Arts Festival is presented by premier events company Redland Events in collaboration with Radio Dalisay and Radio Adhika