Countdown to FACC Gala Night starts now

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

The Fil-American Community of the Carolinas (FACC) promises a bigger, better Gala Night next month and advised those wishing to attend to buy tickets now while supply lasts.

“Let this gala night on Oct. 25 be a uniting factor among us here at the Carolinas,” FACC president Malette Aquino-Oliveros told me. 

She said weekly meetings are already in full swing in preparation for the event. In between are the continuous text messages among the officers to meet the gaps in between days. 

Preparations for the registration, reception and program at the Embassy Suites 5400 John Q. Hammons, Dr. Concord, North Carolina 28207 are underway, Oliveros said. 

The theme for this year’s event is “Then and Now” or “Ganoon kami noon, Ganito kami ngayon in Tagalog,” Oliveros said.

She said the FACC is looking at the past to use it as a map for finding its direction in the future.  “The growth of our community is something to look as it has really grown through the years,” said Oliveros, who held various FACC positions in the past.

I learned that the FACC has the Gala Night as its signature event, the in the words of past FACC president Dr. Nini RB Bautista. The Gala Night is a three-hour festive event for Fil-Americans and their guests who were regaled with food, dances, songs and other entertainment. 

Oliveros said the gala night would also pay tribute to members “who had gone before us, like the late FACC president Dell Amor.”

She hopes that the Gala Night would help build unity among Fil-Americans in the Charlotte, North Carolina area and all over the US. 

This year’s Gala Night is the 27th to be held ever since the FACC was organized in l988 by spouses Lita and Rudy Joaquin . Tickets are priced at US $55 and sold by the FACC 2014 officers. 

“Tayo na mga kapamilya sa Carolina (Let’s all go fellow families in Carolina) :)))) and show off your pretty evening gowns and tuxedo suits or barong,” said Kay Onquillo-Antone,  FACC 2nd VP. 

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)

Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man to perform in Charlotte on Oct. 10-11

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

World renowned US-based Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man is scheduled to hold a concert with the Charlotte Symphony at the Belk Theater in Oct. 10-11, said Virginia Brown, Charlotte Symphony communications manager.

Virginia Brown told Straight from the Carolinas that Wu Man would hold her first performance in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. “This promises to be an exciting performance,” she said. 

Wu Man would be at the Bechtler Museum on Tuesday, prior to the event. Some background provided by Brown sheds light on Wu Man, a leading ambassador of Chinese music to the world, to those unfamiliar with her work.

Wu Man was named as the 2008 US Artists Broad Fellow because of her efforts to promote the pipa, a Chinese lute-like instrument with a musical history going back to more than 2,000 years. 

Brown said Wu Man strives to promote the pipa through various musical styles in both solo and quarter works, concertos, operas, chamber, electronic and jazz music a well as in theater production, film, dance and collaborations with visual artists including calligraphers and painters.

Photo taken from carnegiehall.org

She has been trained in the Pudong School of pipa playing,one of the most prestigious classical styles of China. 

Wu Man is now recognized as an outstanding exponent of the traditional repertoire as well as a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa music by today’s most prominent composers such as Tan Dun, Philip Glass, the late Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Bright Sheng and Chen Yi among many others. 

Wu Man was born in Hangzhou,China, and studied with Lin Schicheng, Kuang Yuzhong, Chen Zemin and Liu Dehai at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she became the first recipient of a master’s degree in pipa. 

She was also accepted into the conservatory at age 13. Wu Man’s audition was covered by national newspapers and she was held as a child prodigy.  
  
During the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.-220A.D.), instruments with long, straight-necks and round resonators with snake skin or wooden boards were played with a forward and backward plucking motion that sounded like ”pi” and ”Pa” to fanciful ears. 

Hence, all plucked musical instruments in ancient times were called pipa. Straight from the Carolinas (yours truly) was invited to attend the concert and so will post my review of the event afterwards. Stay tuned.

Photo taken from ojaifestival,org

(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who works as a nanny in North Carolina. This page will serve as a venue for news and discussion on Filipino communities in the Carolinas.

Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.

You can also connect with her through her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)