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ENTERTAINMENT
THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 6 Number 2 | NOVEMBER 2015
THEY’RE here to get
people dancing.
And last Halloween proved to be a
great night of fun and dance for many
Pinoys who attended one of the latest gigs of the BPM – Beats Per Minute Disc Jockey Entertainment Group –
at the Blacktown Recreation and Bowling Club.
“We envisioned that there should be
a local dance Pub or Bar or just a place
to unwind with the great music hits of
the 70's, 80's and 90's. We couldn't find a
place where the local Filipinos in the area
could dance and gather to enjoy their favourite disco beat so we thought of providing our services,” says veteran DJ Jun
Cabrera of BPM.
Jun formed BPM together with Tony
Concha from Manila Disco, Johnny Zarate from First Audio and Pines Hotel,
Andy Co from Rumors, Manila and they
came up with a theme called ‘Disco the
way it was’ guided by the management
skills of Christine David Concha and
Vangie De Leon.
The group was formed after a successful gig at the Atura Hotel in 2014. It
first launched its own gig in October last
year at the Blacktown Leisure Centre,
Stanhope Gardens. After several events,
the group has offered services to private
functions such as weddings, birthdays
and parties.
“Playing for the young and old makes
Beats Per Minute
'Disco the way it was'
us all happy most especially when people
appreciate your music mix. It's not only
Disco that we play. Mixing music is part
of our lives and a good mix keeps us on
an all- time natural high!” says Jun.
“Being a DJ is not as easy as some
would think. As long as you can get the
crowd on the floor, we're all happy and
proud of it. The lighting plays a vital role
to create a good dance atmosphere.”
The group has invested in their own
equipment including two pairs of Dave15G3 High powered speaker systems,
Pioneer and Numark Controllers, laser
lights and strobe.
“As we played during the Disco Era,
We are familiar with the wonderful memory of Disco. But as a DJ, the new music
keeps catching up and we now play music
that caters all kind of audiences - whether
young or old.”
BPM offers Live Entertainment emcee, hosting, and dance music. The
group can be reached at 0410 714 888,
0488 381 155 or 0404 492 295. See them
on Facebook - Beats Per Minute Retromuzik, BPM Entertainment Sydney.
Veronica Alonzo
Living the Dream
“I have been singing my whole life, but just decided to take
it a little more serious this year”, says the Filipino-Australian
singer Veronica Alonzo as we chat at the Opera house on a
hot Tuesday afternoon.
By Jake Atienza
SHE smiles as the words come to her.
This casual line becomes a catalyst in
understanding the contradiction of career and passion that so often pulls people in different directions and how
Alonzo is bringing these together.
Born to Filipino parents, 27 year
old Veronica from Wolli Creek in Sydney reiterates the importance of music
in her family. As a four year old, “there
was a microphone at somebody’s house
and I just picked it up and started singing. My family is very musical and we
sing all the time.” She explains that this
musicality is an important part of her
singing career.
As the years passed, she continued
performing but went on to “do the proper thing” and obtained a Business Property degree thinking it would make her
parents happy. All the while being “still
inher-ently unhappy because I wasn't
living out my passion.”
Alonzo’s background tells the story of how she is carving out a career
from her love of music and musicals.
As a child of Filipino migrants, she understands the dilemma of the Filipino
diaspora. She hints at a tug-of-war between Filipino creativity and the ideal
career path and aligns it with what she
calls the need for “security, or this idea
of security.”
She observes that “Filipinos are
very creative and they love to sing.
However, “there was always this
idea that we have to make our parents
happy, get a good job.” at the same time
“we have a creative side so it’s like I
don't know which to choose”.
In recent years the singer has been
decisive saying that, “I don’t want to
give up on that dream”. Contrary to
Alonzo’s initial perception of her parent’s desires, they have been very supportive of her. Alonzo is learning that
one can pursue passion and career real-
ising that “a lot of Filipino-Australians
are very successful in their fields”. The
most prominent example is her idol,
Lea Sa-longa most famous for the musical Miss Saigon.
Attending the National Institute of
Dramatic Arts (NIDA) to study Musical Theatre was an important milestone
in Alonzo’s life. She discovered that
there was a place for what she did. Her
involvement with like-minded people
in her early 20’s was really important
because “they are on the same level,
we have the same energy, we have the
same interests and If you're surrounded by that, you tend to want to excel in
that field.”
In the past years she has performed in amateur societies’s renditions of RENT, Jesus Christ Su-perstar, and Miss Saigon. Her most recent performance during the Enchanted Evening fundraiser for underprivileged Filipino students at the Burwood RSL left her audience captivated. She has combined her singing with her work at the Opera House
where she is inspired by the art and
cul-ture that surrounds it.
Her upcoming cabaret, aptly titled
“State of Mind” at The Vanguard in
Newtown, will be performed together
with her cousin and friend from NIDA.
The show is inspired by her love for
New York and the music that forms part
of that city’s identity. They will “basically [be] doing some numbers that remind us of New York City. Its just going to be a really fun, chilled night, [a]
melting pot of all gen-res” such as musical theatre, jazz, pop, R&B, and a little bit of acoustic.
Alonzo confesses that the idea of
finding success in music is “scary but
I don't wanna regret, when I get older,
that I didn't try to do my creative stuff”.
In this spirit, she plans to move to New
York in the future to pursue her love for
musicals.