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Cont’d from Cultural Performance at Angkor Wat. Hate my camera! It didn’t do justice to the beauty and magnificence of Angkor Wat! I took this picture before the concert on Saturday.

So last Saturday and Sunday night, Honey and I attended the ASEAN-China Joint Cultural Performance and Symphony Orchestra of Young Musicians held at Angkor Wat. This is to commemorate the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations. This is the orchestra composed of young musicians from China and the 10 ASEAN countries (FYI, in alphabetical order, these are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). The Philippine delegation was composed of young talented musicians, all NAMCYA winners, from the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. They are still students studying at the UP College of Music and my own alma mater, the UST Conservatory of Music.

On the Saturday concert, they performed a medley of songs from China and the different countries of ASEAN. On the segment for the Philippines, they performed a heart-wrenching orchestral version of Freddie Aguilar’s Anak. It was very interesting that the people around us who were of different nationalities all recognized the song and nudged us saying, That’s Anak, that’s Anak!

Then the delegates performed dances from their own countries. Here are pictures of the dances from Indonesia, Singapore, Laos, China, and Cambodia.

Notice how the dancers are all wrapped conservatively from head to toe with their traditional costumes. So when the Philippine dancers came out, the crowd gasped! Six young muscular men (all members of Ballet Philippines) came out on stage clad in nothing more but bahags. I was shocked! Cambodia has a very conservative culture and so do a lot of our Asian brothers. Honey was quite afraid that the Cambodian authorities would arrest him just for being the Philippine CDA. Check out this picture.

However, after the initial disbelief, the crowd was so quiet as their eyes were riveted to the dancers who executed a modern ballet rendition of an Igorot dance. The whole thing was so INTENSE! They exuded grace and power as they danced to the hypnotic music. And for Honey and me, we heaved a sigh relief as well because they did a great job. We were so worried that the crowd might not be sophisticated enough (the performance was easily 20, 30 years more advanced than the others) and that they might laugh and just consider the whole thing as nothing but a puet-fest. But everyone loved it (some I admit were a little reluctant in their wonder)… the Cambodians, the diplomatic and international community, the tourists, etc.. It was the most memorable I think… I have to give it to them… they definitely delivered the shock factor. We heard that it was talked about the next day among the local crowd.

On Sunday, the orchestra performed a haunting Chinese piece and a Schubert Symphony. The dancers came back as well and performed a medley of their own countries’ dances again. And yes! The bahag boys were back.

Congratulations to the Philippine delegation (the dancers and the musicians) for a job well done! It must have been quite an experience for you to perform in front of the magnificent Angkor Wat. I know it was for me!

If you want to see more pictures, you can email me! and I’ll send you my oFoto album. In the meantime here’s our picture with the Philippine delegation, an awesome group of young talented Filipino musicians and artists.

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