[Harp-L] 8th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival -- Singapore [LONG]

[Tomcat Colvin <bluesasia@xxxxxxxxx>]

First held in Taiwan in 1996 as an Asian complement to Europe's World
Harmonica Championships, the Asian Pacific Harmonica Festival has grown to
be the largest such gathering on the planet.  These two harmonica events are
held in alternate years, usually in late summer.  This year's Asian festival
was held July 30-August 2 in Singapore at the impressive Suntec Convention
Center.  Over 2000 people of all ages attended, representing Korea, Japan,
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam,
India, Australia, New Zealand -- and the Philippines [that was me, alone --
we'll do better next time, promise].

At the center of this festival are the competitions covering chromatic solo,
tremolo solo, diatonic solo, trios, ensembles and orchestras, divided into
age groups as appropriate [Junior, Youth, Open, Seniors].  Five rooms,
opening into a common lobby, were devoted to competition from 8:30 a.m.
until 3:30-4:00.  There were so many entries that it took the full four days
to run through them all.

I spent a great deal of my time monitoring the competition.  I was quite
amazed with the number of competitors in each category.  Here's a breakdown:


AGE GROUPS:
Junior:  less than 13
Youth:  13-19
Senior:  55+
Open:  any age


TREMOLO SOLO  -- Total  151
Junior:  44
Youth   42
Senior  32
Open   33

TREMOLO CREATIVE SOLO -- Total 11
Open    11

CHROMATIC SOLO -- Total  273
Pre-School   31  [yes, pre-school!!!]
Junior    59
Youth    125
Senior:  13
Open    45

DIATONIC SOLO -- Total 6
Open   6

TRIO -- Total 86
Junior    12
Youth    49
Open   25

ENSEMBLE -- 91
Junior    10
Youth    54
Open    27

ORCHESTRA -- Total 42
Junior    17
Youth    11
Senior   5
Open    9

As one can see from these numbers, most of the contestants were teenagers,
with chromatic harmonica being the most popular division.

The level of competition was very impressive.  I happened, almost by
accident, to follow a pair of brothers from Hong Kong -- Ernie and Adrian
Leung.  I captured myself on video the 8-year-old, accompanied on piano by
his older brother.  I uploaded it to YouTube at:

     www.youtube.com/user/BluesAsiaNetwork

The video captures the caring dynamics within this family.  And, by chance,
I uncovered online a video of the older brother in competition, uploaded, I
think, by his parents, at:

      www.youtube.com/user/kfleung9833

Together, these videos give a good indication of the quality of
competition.  You can see other videos at YouTube that are just beginning to
show up there -- just search for <Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival 2010>.

Not all was competition, of course.  There were a number of exhibitors
there, and their booths were crowded throughout the festival.  For a sense
of the festival's flavor, I've uploaded a second YouTube video shot in
various corners of the lobby -- available at my YouTube channel.

On one afternoon, there were a handful of workshops, some by members of the
Harp-l List:  Brendon Power and Michael Timmler, unfortunately scheduled at
the same time.  Among the judges was Tony Eyers, an Aussie whose very
methodical online harmonica course has over 50,000 subscribers in China.
There were also a lot of other professionals there, both Asian and European,
serving as judges or performing at one of the two major concerts.

Several of us, led by Singapore's awesome harp player Kelvin "Smokey" Ng,
went off after the Sunday night concert to take over the stage at the weekly
open mic at the Crazy Elephant, which may be the oldest blues-oriented bar
in southeast Asia.

The diatonic harmonica was barely in evidence at the festival -- only 6
competitors.  On the other hand, the level of their playing has really
improved since the 1st Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival in Taiwan in 1996,
where I was pressed into service as a judge.

I personally plan to mount two campaigns in preparation for the next
Asia-Pacific Festival, to be held in Malaysia.  First, I hope to reach blues
harp players around Asia with my new website at   www.bluesasianetwork.com
and to convince them to attend.  I've learned that blues harp is very
popular in Indonesia, especially around Bandung, and there are others
scattered around Asia, as well.

Second, I hope to re-ignite interest in the harmonica in the Philippines.
There are already some diatonic players working in various bands, as well as
a handful of chromatic players.  But I've been told that there used to be a
vigorous harmonica community in the 1950's through the '70's, with quite a
number of harmonica trios actively performing.  The tradition died out
completely in the 1980's. I'm not sure why it died out here, while it
remained so popular in other Asian countries.  Probably, I'm guessing, it
was a result of the cultural influence of the US on Philippine musical
tastes.  Still, there's a strong community among the Fil-Chinese -- and
maybe they will take an interest in rebuilding the harmonica within the
country.  Aside from that, there are over a million Koreans in the
Philippines now -- and certainly many of them must have learned harmonica
while in school.

Looks like I'll be busy!


Thomas "Tomcat" Colvin

www.bluesasianetwork.com
www.lampanoalley.com