5 August 2013 - Philippine Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union Victoria Bataclan, along with the officers and staff of the Philippine Embassy in Brussels, lent their full support to the staging of multiple performances in Belgium and Luxembourg of the Philippine cultural group Kontra-GaPi, starting early May 2013 until the end of July.
Kontra GaPi, short for Kontemporaryong Gamelan Pilipino, is a resident ethnic music and dance ensemble of the University of the Philippines, established in 1989 that has been able to tour all around the Philippines, as well as in various parts of the world to share the distinct sound of the gamelan – considered the “orchestra” of Southeast Asian instruments – and the beautifully intricate choreography inspired by Philippine and other Asian traditional dances.
The Embassy was ever-present in all major concerts of Kontra-GaPi in Belgium, successfully reaching out to all three of its communities, namely the Flemish-speaking, French-speaking and German-speaking communities which are spread across the three Belgian regions: the Brussels Capital region, Flanders and Wallonia.
In the Flanders region, the group rendered performances in the historic Gent St. Pieters railway station, the Parnassus cultural centre of Gent, and at the Pikkeling Harvest Folkloric Festival in Aalst.
In the Walloon region, Kontra GaPi participated in the annual music festival Francofolies de Spa, had a concert in Spa’s Notre Dame and St. Remacle Church and at its renowned monument Pouhon-Pierre-Le Grand.
The group had the opportunity as well to perform at the opening ceremony of the week-long Philippine painting exhibition entitled, “Mabini Art,” at the German-speaking community’s headquarters in its capital town, Eupen.
Apart from this series of performances and other smaller scale outreach programs/demonstrations, Konta-GaPi had also successfully staged a concert at Moutfourt’s Cultural Center in Luxembourg.
Ambassador Bataclan, Kontra-GaPi founder and leader Pedro “Edru” Abraham, Jr., and the counterpart Filipino community organizers received praises for the group’s splendid performance from key government officials including the Belgian Minister of Culture of the German-speaking community, Mrs. Isabelle Weykmans, the Mayor of the Municipality of Spa, Mr. Joseph Houssa, Alderman of the City of Aalst, Mr. Karim Van Overmeire and East Flanders’ Provincial Government representative Mrs. Agnes Verspreet.
Ambassador Bataclan shared her sentiments about the tour by saying, “I consider Kontra-GaPi’s Belgium/Luxembourg tour as a perfectly harmonious melody created by the extreme dedication of the talented Kontra-GaPi, the perseverance of the Filipino community organization partners and the sustained support of the Embassy.”
“The success of this project could have only been due to the hard work of our partners Kaangayan Vriendenkring vzw of Gent, the Philippine-Luxembourg Society, the Filipino community in Wallonia, the Transwing Kunst Gallery of Darmstadt in Germany, the Erato Singers of Ans and the governments of East Flanders, Gent and Spa, who have remained steadfast in their promotion of all things Filipino. Our concerted efforts have been able to generate great enthusiasm among the Belgian and Luxembourgish people for Philippine culture and the arts,” the Ambassador added.
Kontra-GaPi flew back to Manila from Brussels on July 31 after its three-month concert tour that brought the 17-member group to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. END