“I was hooked on performance.” A Q&A with Leslie Damaso, Filipina American opera singer, bookseller, and community builder

By Rodlyn-mae Banting - Jun 28, 2024

Review: Opera singer Leslie Damaso and Madison band Mr. Chair release ‘SIRENA,’ an ambitious and imaginative album

By Rodlyn-mae Banting - Jun 28, 2024

There are few words that can adequately describe the ethos of Leslie Damaso’s new album SIRENA other than alchemic. Featuring kundiman songs (traditional Filipino love and freedom songs) sung in Damaso’s signature operatic, accompanied by original compositions by the Madison-based band Mr. Chair, and featuring performances from Jon Irabagon, Janice Lee and José Guzmán, SIRENA has been years in the making, made possible only by various creative forces that came together at just the right time to produce this multimedia performance.

SIRENA SONG

May 29th, 2024

Family secrets, a mythic love triangle, displacement, belonging and community — these are just a few of the themes covered in renowned Mineral Point singer Leslie Damaso’s new album, “SIRENA.” Due in June, “SIRENA” blends traditional Filipino kundiman songs with ancient kulintang, classical and jazz sounds.

Music from Madison-connected artists blooms anew

May 1, 2024 by Steven Sporl

Leslie Damaso’s “Ditagaunan” is a twist on a traditional (“Aydao Ditagaunan“) that boasts an all-star ensemble of Madison- and Chicago-based musicians. Best known as a singer and a Mineral Point bon vivant, Damaso switches here from vocals to kulintang—a kettle gong instrument—to create an enormous, absorbing instrumental with Ben Ferris on bass, Jason Kutz on piano, Mike Koszewski on percussion, Janice Lee on violin, and Jon Irabagon on saxophone. Damaso brings an accessible vibrancy to her take on “Ditagaunan”—which has the distinction of being the first track the musician learned on kulintang—and lends a cathartic playfulness to the listening experience. Taken from a forthcoming album and multimedia project entitled SIRENA, “Ditagaunan” is an exceptional preview of what’s likely to be a wholly fascinating work. 

Leslie Damaso’s original work ‘Sirena’ brings texture, culture, and healing to Spring Dig Jazz

April 5, 2022

Returning for its eighth year right in time for Jazz Appreciation Month, the Spring Dig Jazz’s first 2022 event featured a collaboration between Filipina-American singer, writer, and teacher Leslie Damaso and the multi-genre music group Mr. Chair. Hosted at the Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) in collaboration with the Madison Music Collective, Damaso’s original work “Sirena,” was performed live last Friday, April 1st. Compellingly weaving the elements of myth, romance, and patriotism, “Sirena” tells the story of a young mermaid who falls in love with the moon (Bulan), the forbidden romance responsible for the creation of the Philippine islands.

Leslie Damaso & Mr. Chair Bring Mermaids, Kulintang, And Kundiman To Collins Recital Hall

February 23, 2022

On Saturday, February 26th at 7:30 pm, soprano Leslie Damaso will perform at Collins Recital Hall on the UW-Madison campus together with the genre-busting combo Mr. Chair and violinist Sahada Buckley. Titled “Sirena,” the program will weave together Filipino myths and legends about mermaids with jazz-inflected arrangements of kundiman, Tagalog-language art songs of love and freedom. he sounds of kulintang gongs, which Damaso learned to play through virtual lessons during the COVID lockdown, will add their own distinctive resonance to the music, and the multimedia performance will include projections of baybayin, calligraphy in the indigenous Tagalog alphabet.

Home is where you have the most meaningful connections

March 22nd, 2021

We are living through an incredibly challenging period. This time amplified with the many revelations of where our society needs drastic reform and healing. I hope that history will show this as a time where we really recognized each other as human beings. I’m very grateful that we have the technology to communicate and happy to see the many creative ways people are sharing and connecting. I grew up in the Philippines, but the idea of home has been changing throughout the years for me.

MUSIC VIDEO PORTRAYS HER LIFE AS A FILIPINO-AMERICAN IN A SMALL WISCONSIN TOWN

February 27th, 2021

Last February, musician Leslie Damaso relished her first performance at International Festival, singing kundiman art songs of the Philippines to a lively, engaged audience in a packed Promenade Hall.

“I was pleased with the variety of people who came to our performance,” said Damaso. “Kids were dancing up front, even though they didn’t know the language. It was a beautiful experience.”

Before her performance, Damaso spent hours exploring the dozens of vendor booths, sampling international cuisine and watching a variety of performances throughout the building.

“I loved the relaxed atmosphere,” she said. “It had an outdoor festival feel, a joyousness about it. I can’t wait until I can feel that kind of experience and energy again.”

Music of Asian America Research Center Playlist

December 2020

Leslie Damaso is a classically trained Filipino-American singer. Her latest album, May Laya, is a collection of kundiman art songs of the Philippines.Kundiman (which in Tagalog means “if it were not so”), was written in the late 1800’s through the mid 1900’s as a reaction to the Spanish occupation of 333 years. It was later used as propaganda during the American and Japanese occupations and during the time of the People Power Revolution when Ferdinand Marcos was president. In the past couple of years, Leslie has felt an intense longing to explore her roots and to define what home means to her. “Though I am an American citizen, how is it that I’m also Filipino? How do I make sense of the baggage of instability, the effects of war, corruption, colonization, politics, and religion from the country where I was born? Like many immigrants, it was and it is so much easier to assimilate. For people like me who are part of the diaspora, the question of identity or home is challenging to define. Along the way you find little pieces like these songs, you encounter people and places that comfort and inspire and you create this unique collage which makes a home that you never imagined you could have.”Here, we feature the song Ang Aking Bayan, which translates to “The Place I Call Home.”

Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC)

October 23-35th, 2020

I am so proud to be participating in #FPAC2020 the longest-running Filipino cultural celebration in Southern California. This year, since it is a virtual fiesta, we will be reaching more people across the world, sharing our very own Philippine Arts and Culture through words, music, dance, food, and much more! What a wonderful way to celebrate Filipino-American History Month.

Love Wisconsin

September 11th, 2020

“I moved to the United States from the Philippines when I was young. I was always into music. I was in choir and studied piano and voice at a young age. I was really shy but knew I wanted to do music. I studied music at the University of Illinois and eventually moved to my home now in the historic arts community of Mineral Point. When I first came to Mineral Point, I felt like I was literally falling in love with a place.”

The Little Book PRoject Wi

July 17th, 2020

Leslie Damaso is a Filipino-American singer, piano and voice teacher, and artist. Her most recent album, May Laya, won a Madison Area Music Award for Best World Music Album in 2019. Classically trained in vocal performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Leslie now owns and operates Buttonhill Music Studio in the historic arts community of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Besides music lessons, the studio also serves to showcase one-of-a-kind artists and musicians “leaning toward the unusual and delightful”. She also runs a fashion-focused Instagram called MPStreetstyle, currently featuring the #maskequalslove campaign.

Infamous Local Music Festival

September 20th, 2020

Mineral Point's own Leslie Damaso will be opening the show up with her interpretations of the genre of Filipino art songs known as Kundiman, and the innovative Madison band Mr. Chair will be performing with her.

Something old and something new

February 27, 2020

For 39 years, the International Festival has brought the world to Madison in the form of Taiwanese puppet shows, flamenco dances, Scottish bagpipes and myriad other cultural spectacles. With 39 performing artists from Dane County and more than 45 food and fair trade vendors, this year’s festival on Feb. 29 will be one of the largest so far. The packed schedule includes newcomers like Leslie Damaso, who performs traditional songs from the Philippines, and what is believed to be the festival’s first-ever Japanese performance with Beni Daiko’s taiko drumming.

The stylish streets of Mineral Point

Tone Madison

“You may or may not have asked yourself of late, "What are people in Mineral Point wearing?" but it turns out the answers are pretty interesting. An Instagram account launched in May 2017, MPstreetstyle, has brought a burst of lively color to my feed, and maybe yours, courtesy of this city of 2,500 or so people about 50 miles west of Madison. From adorably bundled-up dogs to folks in eye-zingingly green coats to exuberant Pride outfits to aggro biker T-shirts to just tasteful everyday getups, the account offers us a cross-section of how people approach style when they're going about their days in downtown Mineral Point.”

Two Wisconsin-based musicians explore the Filipino art-song tradition known as kundiman

Tone Madison

“This music, known as kundiman, emerged as a traditional Filipino folk music around the turn of the 20th century, in response to the centuries-long Spanish occupation of the Philippines. Written and sung in Tagalog, the lyrics of these kundiman songs focus on sentiments of love—whether it be between people or for nature and the land itself. Kutz's piano accompaniment interacts with Damaso's folk melodies and lyrics in a dynamic similar to that of German and other Western art songs.”