Friday, April 25, 2008 Arti.Sta. Rita embarks on US tour
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- After three successful albums and several notable performances in the country, homegrown artists group Arti.Sta Rita will embark on a US tour next month.
Randy del Rosario, musical director and co-founder of Arti.Sta Rita, said the group will be visiting three venues in the US for a series of concerts-for-a-cause produced by Peter Marcelo and Serendipity Hype Production, in coordination with other Kapampangan organizations like PamagcUSA.
About 30 members of Arti.Sta Rita, together with its technical crew, will serenade Filipino communities and guests in different places in California: May 18 at Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles, May 24 at East County Performing Arts Center in San Diego, and May 31 at San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.
Proceeds of the concert, del Rosario said, are intended for the benefit of the "Desk for the Poor" of Pampanga Auxilliary Bishop Robert Mallari.
The concert, the first outside the country, is entitled "Mekeni Tuki Ka: Kapampangan Pride US Tour."
Founded in 2001 with about 100 members, Arti.Sta Rita is a conglomerate of performing artists from different towns of Pampanga and Tarlac.
It has since produced three widely-sold albums: "Kapampangan Ku" in 2003; "Pamanuli" in 2005; and "Paralaya" in 2007. A fourth album, with a working title "Mekeni Tuki Ka" is on final stage of production, del Rosario said.
The albums all had "economic and critical success."
Professor Randy David said after viewing once of the performances of Arti.Sta Rita: "It is one of the most accomplished performances I have ever seen on any stage in the country."
"I am very proud and happy that we are instrumental in bringing back appreciation for Kapampangan music. Today we hear songs like 'O Jo, Kaluguran Da Ka (My dear, I love you)' and other Kapampangan Pop songs in the airwaves. This is a fulfillment of a dream," said Andy Alviz, president of Arti.Sta Rita Foundation.
Alviz, one of the cornerstones of Arti.Sta Rita, who once worked with Cameron Macintosh in the Asian production of Miss Saigon which featured Leah Salonga.
Del Rosario said one of the main goals of the group is to perform in the US.
"European tours are also in the plans," he said.
Arti.Sta Rita has received a number of citations in the past, including the 2004 Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awards (Moka) Special Citation for the Performing Arts and 2007 Gawad Alab ng Haraya for Best Production Performance from the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
The group was also invited once to sing the Philippine National Anthem in one of the season openings of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
They had also been in major concerts, performing backup vocals for the concerts of Rachel Ann Go, Sarah Geronimo and Leah Salonga.
Also behind the annual Duman Festival, which is visited by about 7,000 spectators, Arti.Sta Rita is the group that brought us "Mekeni Tuki Ka", the province's official tourism jingle and heart-warming song "Kapampangan Ku." (ABL)
