FEU Center for the Artsstages Walang Sugat sarswela on Feb. 4

In celebration of Far Eastern University’s 98th founding anniversary, the FEU Center for the Arts (FCA) proudly presents Walang Sugat on February 4, 2026, 5:30 PM at the FEU Auditorium.

First performed in 1902, Walang Sugat is a sarswela written by Severino Reyes with music by Fulgencio Tolentino set during the Philippine revolution towards the end of the 19th century.

This special production features arrangements and additional music by Josefino Toledo, an FEU Outstanding Alumnus.

Under the direction of Alegria O. Ferrer from the University of the Philippines College of Music, the production brings to life one of the most beloved works in Philippine theater.

The musical direction will be led by Roijin Suarez, Artistic Director of the FEU Chorale.

The cast is composed of both current students and alumni from the FEU Chorale, FEU Theater Guild, and FEU Guides, highlighting the University’s diverse artistic community.

The production will also feature special performances from the FEU Bamboo Band, FEU Dance Company, FEU Theater Guild, FEU Drum and Bugle Corps, and FEU Drummers.

This landmark staging not only celebrates FEU’s 98th year of excellence in education and culture but also commemorates the anniversary of the shot that started the Filipino American War on February 4, 1898.

Walang Sugat revolves around the love story of Tenyong and Julia during the time of revolution. While Tenyong takes up arms in the fight for the nation’s freedom, Julia is confronted with pressure and opposition from her family and the church because of her love for him. Through their story, the sarswela depicts the sacrifices demanded by the struggle for independence and the deep wounds left by war and colonization.

Admission for Walang Sugat is for free. Register through the QR code or via the link below.

https://forms.office.com/r/TLQwAUQYBF

Asia Butoh Gathering 2026 all set for Feb. 6-8

This February 6-8, 2026, Butoh practitioners across Asia convene in Manila for the Asia Butoh Gathering 2026 (AGB 2026). Attendees from Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines will gather for the three-day festival consisting of performances, workshops, film screenings, roundtable conversations, and lecture-presentations.

Butoh is an avant-garde dance from originating in Japan during the postwar era. Founded by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, Butoh is characterized by the grotesque, contorted yet precise movements of the dancers usually in white face and body paint. This artform, straddling the line between dance and theater, has taken a foothold on the rest of the world with Sasa Cabalquinto pioneering Butoh in the Philippines. Cabalquinto, the founder of Kapwa Movement, serves as Festival Director and Program Curator of the Asia Butoh Gathering. 

Sasa Cabalquinto

Rooted in cultural exchange and dialogue, the Asia Butoh Gathering honors the powerful legacy of Japanese Butoh while opening space for regional voices shaped by distinct social, political, and ecological contexts. The festival creates an environment where artists meet across borders to share embodied practices, engage in critical conversations, and explore how Butoh continues to transform across Asia today.

Through performances exploring themes of ecology, ancestry, land, and gender; roundtable discussions on ethics, lineage, and decoloniality; and lecture-presentations tracing Butoh’s historical and contemporary intersections, ABG 2026 holds space for both critical discourse and embodied practice, inviting artists and audiences alike into processes of reflection, exchange, and movement.

The 2026 edition of the Asia Butoh Gathering coincides with the 70th anniversary of Japan–Philippines diplomatic relations, marking a significant moment for cultural collaboration. The festival honors historical ties while fostering new solidarities across Asia, embodying the spirit of kapwa—the shared self and interconnectedness—as an ethical ground for creating, remembering, and imagining together.

Moving Roots, Moving Cultures

Under the banner Moving Roots, Moving Cultures, the festival recognizes Butoh not only as a form born in Japan but as a living, evolving ecology of practices across Asia. Bound by different lands and cultural histories, participating artists reflect on lineage, transmission, and transformation, honoring Butoh’s origins while celebrating how it has rooted, grown, and continues to move through diverse communities.

Curatorial Frame: Butoh in the Time of Ecological Crisis

ABG 2026 unfolds within the curatorial frame Butoh in the Time of Ecological Crisis, responding to a world shaped by environmental collapse and renewal. At the center of the festival is the performance program Falling Earth, Moving Sky, a reflection on the earth as home—undergoing cycles of descent and regeneration.

The program begins with Falling Earth, evoking gestures of extinction, grief, and collapse, and culminates in Moving Sky, where bodies search for new forms of flight, kinship, and repair. Suspended at the heart of the stage is the image of a floating, uprooted tree—both wounded and alive—serving as a shared symbolic space that holds the tension between loss and persistence, decay and resilience.

Butoh practitioners participating at the Asia Butoh Gathering include Tenko Ima, Yuko Kawamoto, Kae Ishimoto from Japan, Sineenadh Ketprapai from Thailand, Vinci Mok from Hong Kong, Xue from Singapore, Lee Swee Keong from Malaysia, Ramoo Hong from South Korea, Hu Chia from Taiwan, Ari Rudenko and Sofyan Joyo Utomo from Indonesia, and Sasa Cabalquinto from the Philippines.

Festival Highlights

February 6, 2026

Opening Program: Moving Roots, Moving Cultures

1:00–5:00 PM Roundtable Conversations on Butoh in Asia

WhyNot Manila, 4th Floor Karrivin Studios, Chino Roces Ave Extension, Makati | Hybrid | FREE

Speakers from Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines

Moderator: Katrina Stuart Santiago

Opening Keynote: Anton Juan

7:00–9:30 PM Butoh Workshop by Yuko Kawamoto

WhyNot Manila, 4th Floor Karrivin Studios, Chino Roces Ave Extension, Makati | On-site | FREE (limited slots)

February 7, 2026

Film Screening and Documenting Archives: Japanese Butoh to Asia

1:00-2:30 PM The Utter Darkness Version of Princess Kaguya

3:00- 3:40 PM History of Butoh in Japan and Tatsumi Hijikata Archives

3:45-4:25 PM Lecture Presentation: Byakko Sha's Southeast Asian Tour

4:30-5:00 PM Asia Butoh Tree Project

WhyNot Manila, 4th Floor Karrivin Studios, Chino Roces Ave Extension, Makati | On-site | FREE

Lecture-presentations by Kae Ishimoto, Tenko Ima, and Yuko Kawamoto

Moderator: Rina Corpus

7:00–9:00 PM Butoh Fu Online Lecture by Kae Ishimoto

WhyNot Manila, 4th Floor Karrivin Studios, Chino Roces Ave Extension, Makati Hybrid | FREE

February 8, 2026

6:00–10:00 PM Closing Program: Falling Earth, Moving Sky

Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC | On-site | Ticketed

Moderator: Jaya Jacobo

Ticketing Information

Early Bird (until Jan 31, 2026): ₱800

General Admission: ₱1,000

Student / PWD: ₱800

Student / PWD: ₱600 (with Early Bird)

Register and purchase tickets here: https://forms.gle/maRWpuuWsfk9ZvRs5

Asia Butoh Gathering 2026 is presented by Kapwa Movement and the Japan Foundation, Manila.

Szymon Nehring's Chopin dazzles at PPO's 2026 opener

Jeffrey Ching, Glober, Calambro, Andión Fernandez, Diomedes Saraza Jr.
Grzegorz Nowak, Szymon Nehring, Jonathan Velasco, and Dennis Marasigan

Back in October 2025, music lovers had their fill of Frédéric Chopin's music while the XIX International Chopin Piano Competition was underway. The devoted were glued to the livestreams during unholy hours while those valued sleep opted to watch the uploaded videos later on. But nothing still beats watching a well performed Chopin, especially one of his piano concertos, live. Thankfully, Polish pianist Szymon Nehring was recently in town for the latest concert of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), thus able to fulfill that craving for a live Chopin performance.

For his stint with the PPO, Nehring harkened back to his days as a finalist at the XVII International Chopin Piano Competition back in 2015 by performing Chopin's Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11, the same piece he played at the competition's final round. Under the baton of Maestro Grzegorz Nowak, Nehring dazzled with his familiar and comfortable take on Chopin. He generated excitement through his impeccable musicality especially with his elegant phrasing of the second movement Romanze. His technical mastery was also on full display at the third movement Rondo that prompted some audience members to applaud even before the final note of the orchestra ended.

An étude or any of Chopin's miniatures would've sufficed for an encore, but Nehring felt very generous performed Chopin's Grande polonaise brillante, Op.22 instead. This felt like received a belated Christmas gift even though it's halfway past January already.

Fortunately, the PPO stepped up to the plate and kept up with Nehring. Gone are the tiny slips that occasionally plague the orchestra and ultimately distract from the overall performance. There were no indications that the PPO came from the long holiday break.

The PPO were on top form probably because they were kept on their toes by the Jeffrey Ching piece that opened the concert. Ching's avant-garde works, to put it lightly, have challenged audience and orchestra members alike with their complex musical language that local audiences aren't used to. Surprisingly, the Ching work that opened the concert, Fenghuang Singing, is one of his more accessible works.

Grzegorz Nowak and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra

The piece had soprano Andión Fernandez and trumpeter Glober Calambro, positioned among the audience at the orchestra section, engage in a musical conversation while accompanied by atmospheric strings. Both Fernandez and Calambro then moved, always in symmetry, to different parts of the orchestra section, as their conversation continues. A handful of musicians were also positioned at the upper boxes and their interwoven flourishes gave this piece a more spatial, immersive experience.

More interesting was the second part that had a fugue played by muted strings. The muted sound combined with an ever lingering but faint dissonance gave the music an incorporeal quality. This was made more evident with the unexpected beats from the drum set that felt a lot more palpable.

Overall, the visual element provided by the soprano and trumpeter, coupled with the discernible architecture of the fugue, made this Ching work a lot more palatable compared to the ones that have been performed by the PPO for the past couple of seasons.

Fernandez performed an encore, Wuxingming lao huashi an aria from Ching’s soon to be premiered opera The Butterflies which is based on the Chinese legend The Butterfly Lovers. Sung in Chinese, the aria was surprisingly tonal for a Ching work.

All of this made up for a front loaded program with only Franz Liszt's Les Préludes S.97 listed for the second half. While the PPO performed this symphonic poem competently, it eventually felt like an afterthought. But after Nehring's splendid Chopin, as well as a surprisingly accessible Ching, there was no reason to complain.

Jazz concert to celebrate 70 years of Japan-Philippines diplomatic relations

The year 2026 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the Philippines. To formally launch this landmark year, The Japan Foundation, Manila will present Harmony of Friendship: A Jazz Prelude to 70 Years of Japan-Philippine Ties, featuring exceptional jazz performers from Japan and the Philippines. This concert serves as the official inauguration of a year-long celebration of enduring diplomatic partnership.

The festivities will commence on January 20, 2026, with an opening reception and jazz concert at the Proscenium Theater, organized in partnership with the Embassy of Japan.

The headline act is the Tokyo-Manila Jazz & Arts Festival Group, an ensemble led by acclaimed Filipino jazz vocalist, Charito, a prominent figure in the Japanese jazz scene.

Charito

They will be joined by the Philippines’ A.M.P. Big Band, an organization of professional session musicians. The big band genre represents the historic foundation of the dance and concert hall experience, making it the perfect medium for this celebration.

A.M.P. Big Band

The theme for this 70th year anniversary is Weaving a Tapestry of Friendships, Threading Bonds of Trust. If one views the seven decades of friendship between Japan and the Philippines as a work of art, the establishment of diplomatic ties provided the fundamental warp and weft of the loom as this partnership remain committed to being part of the thread where a vibrant future is woven, stitch by stitch, for the next generation.

Arimasa Yuki

Following the opening festivities, the concert tour then moves to the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium on January 22, 2026, before concluding with a final performance at the Social Hall of the Cebu Provincial Capitol in partnership with the Consulate-General of Japan in Cebu City on January 23, 2026.

Kusui Satsuki

There will also be a cultural and educational exchange as The Japan Foundation, Manila and the Tokyo-Manila Jazz & Arts Festival Group visit De La Salle University–Dasmariñas for CIFRA International: A Workshop with Tokyo-Manila Jazz & Arts Festival Group. Held in partnership with the Lasallian Pop Band, a student group dedicated to exploring diverse musical genres.

Kitazawa Hiroki

The opening at the Proscenium and Cebu Capitol Social Hall is an invitation-only event. The workshop at De La Salle University-Dasmariñas will be organized by Lasallian Pop Band and participation by RSVP is thru the organization. The concert at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium is free and open to the public.

Here is the schedule of performances

January 20, 2026, 8:00PM

The Proscenium, Rockwell Center, Makati City

January 21, 2026, 1:00PM

De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, Dasmariñas City

January 22, 2026, 7:00PM

Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City

January 23, 2026, 7:00PM

Social Hall, Cebu Provincial Capitol, Cebu City

The cultural weaving of our nations began long before official policy. It can be traced back to the introduction of jazz to the Philippines, where Filipino musicians later played a pivotal role in popularizing the genre in Japan. This history serves as a powerful reminder that our harmony is built on more than just governmental agreements. It is composed of individual melodies coming together to create a richer, unified sound.