What began as a casual conversation between friends at a back porch one summer has evolved into a full-fledged Filipino-American Symphony Orchestra now entering into the mainstream., with its own concert.

The stage is set at the historic Saban Theatre in Los Angeles, California on May 17, 2009.

Roger Oriel from Binalonan, Pangasinan, publisher and CEO of The Asian Journal and Lito Ocampo Cruz, Editor-at-Large for The Asian Journal and Editor-in-Chief for Balikbayan Magazine, felt the need for a symphony orchestra that showcases the talents of Filipino-Americans.

“There are many outstanding Filipino musicians out there,” observed Roger.

“The need was for someone or for one group to gather the musicians together and just form the orchestra.”

Roger and Lito, both music lovers and visionaries, decried this lack. They noted that while there are Filipino musicians who played for orchestras of other ethnic groups, such as the Chinese and the Koreans, but a symphony orchestra composed mainly of Filipino-Americans was still not in place.

“Let’s do it ourselves,” challenged Lito. “A Filipino orchestra in America will cultivate the artistry of Filipino musicians.” And such artistry, Lito believes, is innate in Filipinos. “We saw that the need for such a group has long been overdue,”

As the leading Fil-Am newspaper in America, Asian Journal wants to give back to the Fil-Am community something direly needed and which they can be proud of—for generations to come.” said Oriel.

Readers are urged to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsSMZESGJsM and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggAaKVyXRys –

Contributed by Raffy Oriel

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