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November 20, 2009
To our dear friends and supporters,
As one who makes her living telling tales, I often find truth is more amazing than fiction.
On the night of the Autumn moon a few weeks ago, the Consulate General of Japan gave a reception in honor of our 30 years of music and story making. During it all, I kept thinking how my own personal story had finally come full circle. As Mark and I enjoyed the Consul General’s beautiful home and feasted on great conversation and exquisite Japanese cuisine, I couldn’t help but think of my Aoki ancestors.
Viscount Suizo Aoki was one of the first ambassadors sent from Japan to America - it was because of him that my grandfather and uncle were able to travel from Japan to San Francisco and become the founders of Japantown. Before coming to America, Viscount Aoki had been an ambassador in Berlin, where he met and married a German baroness. He set the example because as many of you already know from our play, Uncle Gunjiro’s Girlfriend, my family fell from Grace (Grace Cathedral that is) for standing up for Gunjiro’s marriage to the Archdeacon’s daughter. So began my family’s foray into multi-racial identity more than 100 years ago. We were pre-Obama! Being honored by the Consul General was a profound statement on how the world has changed: now, it is the sons and daughters of multiple tribes who open dialogue, help create understanding, and act as peacekeepers.
Thanks to the support of loyal friends like you, First Voice is able to do our part to heal souls and bridge divides by creating and presenting the stories and music of people living between worlds. This year, we released two critically acclaimed CDs, Threading Time and Mermaid Meat, in the U.S. and Japan; performed all over the Bay Area including my first time at Yoshi’s and all across the country; to top it off, Mark won an Emmy for his score for Bolinao 52, a documentary about the Vietnamese boat people.
The coming year is shaping up to be just as busy and artistically rewarding, but we need your support to make it happen!
• San Francisco’s first global holiday show, featuring dancers & musicians from Korea, Mexico, Peru, and India, Return of the Sun the December 5, 2009 at the JCCSF is a Winter solstice tale of how the people of the world dancing together brought back the light. This is the premiere of what we hope will become an annual holiday tradition.
• Suite J-Town is a 2010 composition project close to our hearts: with Japantowns across the U.S. being displaced by corporate development, we feel that there is no better time to create a work that preserves the stories & music of the people of San Francisco’s Japantown.
• From Tokyo, we brought shakuhachi master Christopher Yohmei for the release of our latest CD, Legend of Morning Glory performed with the amazing Maze Daiko, at the de Young Museum this month, in 2010, we hit the road to perform this Kabuki Taiko Oratorio in Monterey, CA and Atlanta, GA.
First Voice, like many artists in San Francisco, have found our foundation support drastically slashed as a result of the recession and ticket sales only cover a small part of our annual operating costs. In addition, for the past 30 years, we have worked in Bay Area schools giving assemblies concerts and workshops. Although arts funding has been cut drastically in the public schools, with your support we can continue giving our Finding Voice workshop and Tales of the Pacific Rim assemblies. With this fund drive, we hope to raise $30,000. Here’s what your contribution could do for First Voice:
• $50 pays for dry cleaning costumes after one show
• $100 subsidizes the cost of one Finding Voice workshop in an elementary school
• $150 subsidizes the cost of one Finding Voice workshop in a middle/high school
• $200 pays for utilities at our rehearsal studio
• $250 subsidizes the cost of a school assembly
• $500 subsidizes the cost of a community performance
• $1000 pays rent for our administrative office and office supplies
• $3000 pays for airfare and housing for international guest artists
• $5000 subsidizes artists and tech fees on a national tour
Thanks in advance for contributing your personal “chi” towards First Voice’s success – each gift we receive, no matter the size, goes into our hearts and onto the stage with us, then out to the world.
Wishing you all the best,
Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu
First Voice Artistic Directors
Please help support First Voice with a donation.
