An Evening with the NAAP Chorus
Alex Chester
The other night I spent my evening with the National Asian Artist Project (NAAP) Community Broadway Chorus. It was a night of song featuring the music of Jerry Herman. Plus I got to hang with all the wonderful people part of this awesome organization.
Brian Jose one of the founders of Broadway Barkada and me
National Asian Artists Project (NAAP) is a community of artists, educators, administrators, community leaders, and professionals. It is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that recognizes the need to build bridges between the work of artists of Asian descent, and the many communities that the work can serve, from underserved primary school students to seasoned arts patrons.
It was even more of a special occasion because the founder and face of NAAP, Baayork Lee, is being honored with Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award at this year’s Tony’s. About damn freaking time. Not only is she a living legend, she has the biggest heart and has done so much for the API theatre community!
Baayork created the NAAP Broadway Chorus to provide performance opportunities for established and emerging professional artists, as well as for those with a passion for musical theatre. The chorus performs music from across the Broadway and beyond repertoire with engagements already scheduled for 2013-14 in NYC and at the Kennedy Center in DC. The NAAP Broadway Community Chorus provides opportunities to collaborate with top Broadway artists, as well as vocal, dance and theatre masterclasses to its members.
As always, it is a thrill to see my friends up on stage, singing their hearts out. NAAP is part of the solution when it comes to fixing the Diversity problems we find onstage. Below are some pics from the evening’s performances.
Baayork Lee founder of NAAP and 2017 Tony recipient
Ya Han Chang and the NAAP Choir perform Ribbons Down My Back
Kiet Tao Ko and the NAAP Choir perform Song on the Sand
Viet Vo and Carla Ogden and the NAAP Choir perform It Only Takes a
Karin Kawamoto and the NAAP Choir perform It’s Today
Shino Francis and the NAAP Choir perform That’s How Young I Feel
Mandarin Wu and the NAAP Choir perform Moon Song
NAAP Choir: Sean P Cameron - Music Dir and Pianist, Amy Ashley, Ben Bartels, Kiet Cao, Ya Han Chang, Amanda Chin, Peggy Chin, Shan Y Chuang, David Eng, Angelita Esperanza, Francine Espiritu, Shino Frances, Alyssa Ishihara, Karin Kawamoto, Yuko Kudo, Makiko Kuri, Sandra Lee, Rina Maejima, Mio Nakanishi, Siera Nakanishi, Carla Ogden, Charles Pang, Lloyd Mario Prian, Jeremy Rafal, Lil Rhee, Melissa Rivera, Keiko Tomita, Hiroko Uchino, Viet Vo, Sayaka Wada, Tomo Watananbe, Katie Wei, Mandarin Wu, Jing Zhang, Ying Zhang.