Indianapolis, September 18, 2026— Our Philippines project from May 18 to 30 was a success. In the first week, our founder William Harvey taught at Casa San Miguel, also giving a performance that included this rendition of a piece by Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo. All of our musicians also performed with the Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra in a concert to raise funds for our work in the Philippines. Manila Trend Tracker wrote this review of the concert, and Medium has this review. Highlights included performances by our soprano Alize Rozsnyai and our violinist Rebecca Schlappich as soloists with the orchestra.

Our primary activity took place in the second week, when the Cartwheel Foundation, MAGIS Creative Spaces, and the Ateneo Human Rights Center facilitated our exchange with the Tagbanua indigenous community in Palawan province. The exchange built upon a previous exchange Cartwheel and CiH conducted with them in 2014, described by Cartwheel’s founder Gina Alfonso in this academic article. The exchange culminated in a Manila concert on May 30, 2026, from which Cartwheel released this highlights video.

Photos and videos from our trip the Philippines may be found at our Instagram and Facebook pages. We eagerly await a documentary film about the project that will be released later this year. We gratefully acknowledge the participation in the project of Alize Rozsnyai, Rebecca Schlappich, and Lo Mares.