MA-DADAP SF CONCERT SET FOR JANUARY 29 INQUIRER.net
January 13, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO - The world-renowned New York-based husband-and-wife couple of guitarist Michael Dadap and violinist Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma will perform in San Francisco on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 7:30 PM at the Veterans War Memorial Bldg. Their concert entitled “Romancing with Violin and Guitar Music” will feature guitar and violin solos and guitar-violin duets both classical and native Philippine music. It is a benefit for the Filipino WW II veterans and for the Children’s Orchestra Society of New York.
Michael Dadap came to New York in 1971 to study music theory and classical guitar at the Mannes College of Music, and composition and conducting at Julliard. His successful Carnegie Recital Hall debut in 1974 was followed by extensive concert tours in the United States, Europe, and in the Far East.
His busy schedule as an active solo and chamber music concert artist as well as the Artistic /Music Director, and principal conductor of the Children's Orchestra Society (COS) in New York, has not hindered Mr. Dadap's passion for the classical guitar. He has published and recorded CD albums including original works & arrangements of Visayan songs for soprano and guitar.
Mr. Dadap’s wife of nearly 30 years is violinist Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma, who is also a developmental pediatrician graduate of the Harvard Medical School. She is the Executive Director of the COS, where she teaches violin, viola & chamber music. Informally known as the "Music Doctor", her recent interests include optimizing communication in all children, exploring the relationship of music to young children's temperament, and using music as a means to find the "inner language" of children who have difficulties in verbal communication.
Better known as the older sister of famed cellist Yo-yo Ma, with whom she performed together with in the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson when they were kids, Dr. Ma studied violin with her father Dr. H. T. Ma, as well as with Firmin Touche, Arthur Grumiaux, Koji Toyoda, and Sheila Reinhold. Winner of the National Competition for Le Royaume de La Musique in France at age 10 with Paganini Concerto in D, Dr. Ma’s performances include Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with the Denver Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11 and various joint concerts with her brother, Yo-Yo Ma.
According to a New York Times feature on her, Dr. Ma works four days a week as a pediatrician at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and seven days a week at the COS. Her work with young people has been recognized by St. Joseph's College in West Hartford, which awarded her a doctorate honoris causa in 1994, the Public Advocate for NYC Award for leadership, & advocacy for Asian-American Youth in 1996 and Long Island Woman of Distinction in 2005 by Distinction Magazine. Dr. Ma speaks 8 languages and in her spare time, likes to read, cook, and write poetry.
Mr. Dadap has devoted a large portion of his career to the appreciation of Filipino folk music, pioneering the awareness of Filipino Rondalla in the United States. He is the founding music director of the Iskwelahang Pilipino Rondalla of Boston, Massachusetts. He travels annually to the Philippines to concretize, teach, and give workshops on the Bandurria as a virtuoso instrument at the Silliman University, in Dumaguete.
In December 2000, Michael Dadap became the first recipient of the "2000 Artist of the Year Award" sponsored by the Flushing Council on the Arts in Queens." Mr. Dadap also conducts workshops on music participation and appreciation for hearing-impaired children at The Lexington School for the Deaf in Jackson Heights, Queens.
The concert is sponsored by the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) Region 8 and the American Legion Nataan Post # 600. For more information about the Ma-Dadap Concert, please call Rudy Asercion at (415) 724-0641 or Rodel Rodis at (415) 334-7800.
