Rondalla Performances and Tours

We proudly have Rondalla Performances and Tours throughout each year since the IP Rondalla’s founding in 1986.

Local and Regional Public Performances

The Iskwelahang Pilipino Rondalla performing at the Boston Globe Travel Show in 2017.
The IP Rondalla performing at The Boston Globe Travel Show in 2017.

Local performances provide our students with opportunities to perform outside of the immediate IP community, further strengthening their skills. Rondalla students in the Talindaw Class typically perform in smaller-scale performances with our IP Carolers! Our Rondalla Ensemble (Kundiman Class) does larger scale performances year round.

The IP Rondalla regularly performs at local colleges, folk festivals, galas, and Filipino American events. Our Rondalla Ensemble has recently performed at Northeastern University, Boston College, Brown University, Vassar College, and the Mary Baker Eddy Library. We are very proud to be long-time performers at Northeastern University and Boston College, guest performing at both universities’ annual culture shows for over a decade! A playlist of our recorded performances at Northeastern University can be found here.

In addition to the IP Rondalla Ensemble, the Tunog ng Ulap Rondalla is a delightful plucked string ensemble of faculty and alumni affiliated with the Iskwelahang Pilipino of Boston. The group gathers for special events, performing original compositions and arrangements of traditional pieces celebrating the musical dynamism of the islands.

One of our IP Rondalla’s goals is to raise public awareness of Filipino culture and the Filipino American community. We are also proud to represent Filipino culture and bring the nostalgia of familiar folk music from the homeland to Filipino expatriates through rondalla.

If you are looking to book the IP Rondalla for your event, please fill out our Performance Booking Inquiry Form!

International Tours

The IP Rondalla on PTV Philippines in 2013 during their Third Concert Tour of the Philippines.

In addition to local and regional performances, the IP Rondalla periodically goes on international concert tours and trips. These tours not only promote the art of rondalla, but also provide our rondalla members with opportunities to act as ambassadors for IP and interact with Filipinos in the Philippines, Europe, and Canada. In order to participate in an international rondalla tour, our rondalla students must audition for the trip.

Our Rondalla Ensemble’s Tours include:

Click here to learn more about the experiences and accomplishments of our rondalla abroad

More Information about the Rondalla Abroad

The Philippines

The IP Rondalla first toured the Philippines in July of 1990. The trip was an amazing cultural exchange, and the rondalla members were enriched by a wide range of experiences, from meeting young children from Smokey Mountain in Tondo to playing for then-President Corazon Aquino at Malacañan Palace. In 1998, with a host of new members, the IP Rondalla returned to the Philippines for the Centennial of the Republic. Though the most impressive performance took place at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, some of the students’ most fond memories are of hiking up a mystical mountain in Tayabas with local villagers and giving a benefit concert to help combat the ecological destruction of the mountain caused by illegal logging. In February of 2004 another generation of the rondalla returned for the first International Rondalla Festival in Bicol.

Their most recent tour to the Philippines took place in the summer of 2013. The group was featured in many FIlipino newspapers and on several television shows. They played for President Benigno Aquino, Jr. in Malacañan Palace and at numerous universities and schools. Their concert at Resorts World gave the group a chance to perform with the musical luminaries Celeste Legaspi, Jon Joven, Jim Paredes, Ryan Cayabyab, and Maritess Salientes. (You can read more about the tour in the student blog: Pinoy Jeep.)

Europe

The group has also toured Europe twice, first in 1994, performing in Belgium (including a concert at NATO), Germany, The Netherlands, Austria and England, and again in 2008, playing in Switzerland and Austria.

Canada

In 2018, our rondalla visited Canada for the first time with their Reveries and Rhythms Tour. This summer tour included: Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Winnipeg. Our rondalla performed for and collaborated with the Philippine Cultural Center Foundation in Calgary, the Philippines Consulate General Calgary, the Filipino-Canadian Saranay Association of Alberta, the Ontario Filipino Women’s Club, and Magdaragat, Inc. Reveries and Rhythms was an exploration of the Filipino diasporic experience, including real and borrowed memories enlivened with imagination and featuring the exciting cacophony of growing up with mingled heritages.