It began with a vision of bringing together different Asia Pacific countries in a single performance. Percussion instruments like drums are the perfect medium for this type of performance: every culture has them, they all serve similar purposes, yet the actual design, patterns, and sounds are unique to that culture.
The concept has been building for the last three years with the coordination of Aime Harrell, a leader in the Thai Community and longtime partner of APCC. For this year’s 24th Annual Asia Pacific New Year Celebration, we had eight talented cultural groups from Hawaii, Korea, Samoa, Fiji, Japan, Thailand, Guam, and Okinawa who participated.
“It began with a vision of bringing together different Asia Pacific countries in a single performance."
~ Aime Harrell, coordinator
The series kicked-off with meetings where each country could demonstrate their specific sounds. They were then asked to create a set of musical phrases that would showcase their culture. A particular rhythm was then chosen to act as a bridge for each of the individual countries. The goal was to create a coming together after each set of phrases and to prepare the audience’s ears during the transition to a new set of sounds. This whole musical package was wrapped with an intro and an outro played in unison to build to an ending crescendo.
Several practice sessions were held over the course of three months as the groups prepared for the final show at APCC’s 24th Annual New Year Celebration. The audience came from far and wide, and were treated to a truly spectacular Drums of All Nations performance during the event’s Opening Ceremony.
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