Message from Christi-Anne castro

From: Christi-Anne Castro [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 12:29 PM
To: PACE-MI via Ignacio, Rose
Subject: Re: PACE-MI Cutural Program: Ugnayan Ng Ating Kultura:


Dear PACE-MI,
     What a delight it has been to work with you and the young people in the community to further Philippine and Filipino American arts and culture! It is through dedication, patience, and a passion for the arts that this kind of initiative can come to fruition. I have been impressed with the good cheer and interest of community members, including those with no musical experience whatsoever, and have enjoyed watching and hearing the ensemble learn new pieces and grow as musicians. 
    This multi-generational group includes seniors picking up instruments for the first time after a hiatus of decades, high school students with musical backgrounds in classical and popular music, and adults and youths who have always wanted to play an instrument or who have been looking for a group with whom to play their instruments. The spirit of inclusivity is the heart of what makes a community strong, and the pride of heritage fuels the efforts and sacrifices people have made to bring together this inaugural PACE-MI production.
Congratulations to the organizers, members, students, and parents of PACE-MI! 

Christi-Anne Castro
Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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Christi-Anne Castro is director of the University of Michigan Center for Southeast Asian Studies and an associate professor in the Musicology Department of the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance. She holds a doctoral degree in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her book, Musical Renderings of the Philippine Nation (Oxford Press 2011) is a cultural history of music, politics, and nationalism in the Philippines during the 20th century. This work won the 2012 Global Filipino Literary Award, assigning it special cataloguing status in the Library of Congress Southeast Asian Collection housed in the Asian Reading Room. At U-M, she teaches courses introducing various types of world music, music and the body, music and gender, and ethnography. She is also the long-standing musical director of the Iskwelahang Pilipino Rondalla of Boston and has been playing, arranging, and composing rondalla music for the ensemble since its founding.

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