Rabat – For the first time in its decades-long journey, the Filipino performing arts ensemble Kontra-GaPi is heading to Africa.
The group, known formally as Kontemporaryong Gamelan Pilipino, will spend ten days in Morocco as part of a landmark celebration marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine Independence and five decades of diplomatic ties between the Philippines and Morocco.
The visit, announced by Philippine Ambassador to Morocco Leslie Baja, carries a sense of pride and anticipation.
For Baja, this is more than a cultural tour, and more of a personal chapter in a long story of representing his country through art. He recalled Kontra-GaPi’s performance in Switzerland in 2013, during his previous diplomatic post. The memory, he noted, never quite left those who witnessed it.
“He has this knack of bringing out the artistic side of his audiences”, Baja said in a press statement. “I am sure, this time, he will rock Morocco!” Baja is speaking of Professor Pedro “Edru” Abraham Jr., the ensemble’s founder and guiding spirit for over thirty years.
A fixture at the University of the Philippines, Abraham has spent most of his life tracing, preserving, and reshaping the country’s indigenous traditions.
Unlike typical musical acts, Kontra-GaPi does not aim for spectacle. Their strength lies in the quiet force of bamboo instruments, the haunting power of chants, and the rhythm of ritual.
It is a performance that feels less like a show and more like an invitation to listen, to history, to ancestry, to what remains unsaid.
The ensemble’s visit to Morocco includes more than concerts. The group will also meet with students, artists, and scholars to share what they know through workshops and conversations. In this way, their presence becomes an exchange, not just a presentation.
Moroccan audiences will encounter something rare, Filipino culture as lived and remembered, not packaged or simplified. For a group that has spent years carrying memory across continents, Morocco now becomes part of the journey.
“One really feels welcomed here in Morocco,” said Baja recently in an exclusive interview with Morocco World News (MWN).
The ambassador also expressed confidence that the next 50 years will build on the achievements of the past half-century. “We hope to further strengthen economic ties and deepen both bilateral and multilateral cooperation,” he concluded on a high note.
