Mindanao Lilang Lilang/Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble
Filipino kulintang music
The Mindanao Lilang Lilang/Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble presents traditional music and dance from the Maguindanao, Maranao, and Tausug peoples of Mindanao Island in Southern Philippines. Executive Director Danongan Kalanduyan is a master musician, ethnomusicologist, and cultural consultant on Muslim-Filipino culture; he is the only master artist of Maguindanao Kulintang music in the United States. Mr. Kalanduyan earned his graduate degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington at Seattle, where he was an artist-in-residence for many years. In 1995, Mr. Kalanduyan received the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2014, a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program supported a series of performances by the Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble in the San Francisco Bay Area, serving to reenergize the local kulintang music scene.
The Mindanao Lilang Lilang/Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble also received grants from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program in 2010 and 2008. In 2010, grant funds supported the purchase of instruments to be housed at the Filipino Community Center and Balboa High School, where master artist Danny Kalanduyan and members of the Ensemble have been teaching classes for several years. In 2008, grant funds supported free kulintang (indigenous tuned gongs) music and dance classes for youth and adult community members .