clockwise from top left: Amanda Laborete, Jay Julio, Carla Fortmann. Adrian Nicholas Ong, and Steven Joven-Lee

The FilAm Music Foundation announces its upcoming virtual concert series beginning May 22 to showcase its roster of young musicians. The concerts will be broadcast free and streamed on the FilAm Music Foundation’s Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube feeds. Donations are encouraged to help support scholarship and performance opportunities for up and coming Filipino American classical musicians.

Performing in the series are:

Violist Jay Julio (May 29), violinist Stephen Joven-Lee (June 5), clarinetist Carla Fortmann (June 12), violinist Adrian Nicholas Ong (June 19), and cellist Amanda Laborete (June 26).

A special to be announced performance will kick off the series on May 22.

The foundation was founded in 2018 by critically acclaimed pianist and Steinway Artist, Victor Santiago Asuncion. FilAm Music Foundation has collaborated with musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and hosted solo concerts featuring notable musicians including soprano Margarita Giannelli, cellist Jay Campbell, and the Juilliard trained concertmaster of the Manila Symphony Orchestra, Diomedes Saraza Jr.

The foundation’s CSO collaboration led to a popular chamber music series held at the historic lakefront Dawes House in Evanston, IL in 2019. In 2020, despite the challenges of the pandemic, Asuncion and the FilAm musicians returned to the Dawes House in an outdoor socially distanced chamber concert series that Chicago Classical Review called “A welcome return to live music”.

Stream the concert series on the Foundation’s Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube pages beginning May 22nd at 7 p.m. CST.

View Represent Classical editor Christine S. Escobar’s recent interview and discussion with Asuncion and the foundation’s young musicians on Asian American visibility and inclusion in the classical music industry.