Peabody students bring Homewood, MICA communities together with Inter-Asian Cultural Expo April 20
For the third-annual Inter Asian Cultural Expo taking place this weekend at the Glass Pavilion on the Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus, organizers and graduate students Ryo Hasegawa and Jia Yi Lee had to contend with one of the thorniest challenges facing event producers: finding rehearsal time during a month already densely packed with concerts. “Having the event on one of the busiest weeks of the school year meant we had to deal with everyone’s schedules,” Lee notes in an email interview, adding that they added more concertos to the program to spotlight more of their talented peers.
Hasegawa started the Inter Asian Cultural Expo in 2021 to bring together a wide range of arts from the Asian communities and cultures in Baltimore, inviting student groups and artists from MICA and the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus to participate. This year, Homewood student groups performing include the Hopkins East Asian Traditional Music Ensemble, the Filipino Student Association, Notes of Ranvier, the Yong Han Lion Dance Troupe, and the Inter-Asian Council Fashion Show. Eight MICA student artists showcase their work. And the IACE Orchestra, featuring Peabody students, performs Chinese composer Bochan Li’s Ode to Hero· Ode to Love (featuring erhu soloist and graduate student Siqi Tong), Viet Cuong’s (BM ’11, MM ’12, Composition) Re(new)al (featuring percussion soloists Johnny Barker, Matt Boyle, Sam Carullo, and Ben Giroux), Canadian-Sri Lankan composer Dinuk Wijeratne’s “Gajaga Vannama” – Fantasy Variations on a Traditional Theme (featuring piano soloist Chloe Desouza), and composition graduate student Zhishu Chang’s Blue Green, winner of the IACE call for scores 2024.
“Despite the challenges, it has been rewarding to be able to bring all these people from different campuses together for an event that highlights Asian culture, music, dance and art,” Lee adds. “It’s also been meaningful to showcase Asian culture since there is a large population of Asian students at Peabody, JHU, and MICA.”
Hasegawa started the Expo because he noticed those large population of Asian students at Hopkins, Peabody, MICA, and in Baltimore, yet wasn’t seeing much Asian arts performed—or even chances for Asian arts communities to interact. “I saw a lack of events hosted by local institutions that celebrate the cultures that directly reflect our community,” Hasegawa says.
“This year will be my last year as event director, and I just want to emphasize the importance of this event for the future,” he adds, pointing out that the Expo doesn’t simply bring students from three campuses together to collaborate but “to showcase Asian art and culture to the community. My primary mission curating the program every year is to have a diverse representation from various Asian countries. And if this event continues to grow in programming, fundraising, bringing in more collaborations, and having more diverse representation of Asian art, I think it can add so much meaningful celebration and educational opportunities to the local community.”
The Inter Asian Cultural Expo runs 12:00 to 6:00 pm at the Glass Pavilion. Free.