July 19th: PWU Music Jam - A JASMS perspective

The PWU-JASMS Rondalla and a few members of IP Rondalla after our Jam Session (Cred: Mico Comia)

It was a week filled with countless hours of rondalla practices. We were preparing for two big events: The Rondalla Music Jam and our recording for NAMCYA. The members of the JASMS  (Jose Abad Santos Memorial School, a high school affiliated with PWU) Rondalla missed their classes once again to play at the CB Hall at PWU for the Music Jam. All we knew was that we would be performing with rondalla players from Boston, which we saw made headlines in the newspaper and were put on "Eat Bulaga" a week ago. We arrived at PWU early, confident about ourselves even though it decreased a bit when we found out that the Iskwelahang Pilipino Rondalla players played while dancing.



Sarah Fadrigalan with a few JASMS members.
It's their speciality to photobomb. (Cred: Mico Comia)

We were the first to arrive at PWU. Shortly after, we met the players of Bayanihan Rondalla. That was some surprise; I didn’t know they were going to be a part of the jam. The IP Rondalla was late, but arrived on time for the show. Our group, the JASMS Rondalla, was up first. We performed “Mabuhay” and “A Hard Day’s Night” by the Beatles. It was so fun playing, but we were expecting to play more since we practiced lots of pieces back in school. We were followed by the performance of the Bayanihan Rondalla. They were just wonderful. Our entire group went speechless because of how beautifully and passionately they performed. Last was the IP Rondalla. It is truly impressive how they danced and played; we tried to do that before during our special number in our Himig ng Lahi concert, and I know it’s very difficult. I recognized one of their pieces though - Pobreng Alindahaw. Our group used to play that some two or three years back. For the finale, we played together “Mabuhay” and “O Ilaw.” All three of us performed while standing up, mixing ourselves within the rondalla groups. It was such an honor to have performed on that stage with such talented musicians.

Noli, our Rondalla teacher, with the Bayanihan and
IP Rondalla members (Cred: Mico Comia)

After the Music Jam, it was time to get acquainted with the other groups. I’m such an introvert and suck at making friends. People say I'm such a snob, especially to the ones who aren’t my friends. Well I’m really just shy. But that day I was forced to be un-shy. At first, I was just sticking with Mico, who was also shy at making friends, but soon we got separated. Well, Lev and Patrick sat next to me and an IP friend followed. Her name was Sierra. She was very nice and comfortable to talk with. She actually reminded me of my cousin from California who came home just recently. (Unfortunately, she had a hard time pronouncing my name, because she hadn't heard the name "Danielle" spoken with a Filipino accent before.) The four of us were able to share some laughs and talk about just the most random things. As weird as it was, I really enjoyed her company. The group was really interesting to be with - unfortunately IP had to leave early. That upset us since we had just made friends. It was an exhausting day, but it was equally just as fun.

Danielle Galian

IP Rondalla & JASMS Rondalla socializing in the corner. Lev, Sierra, and me on the right.
Unfortunately, I'm not looking at the camera. /(T^T)\ (Cred: Mico Comia)