Singer Nicole Asensio is celebrating her birthday on July 7 with “Quarantuned,” online benefit concert for her fellow musicians. The show starts 9 p.m. on Facebook Live (facebook.com/nicole.l.asensio).
Donation details are posted on the livestream page.
Proceeds will go to the Asosasyon ng Musikong Pilipino (AMP) and Artists Welfare Project Inc. (AWPI), which are providing healthcare assistance and funds to their members displaced by the COVID-19 crisis. Assisting Asensio in the project is AMP musical director Mel Villena.
Asensio says that, during the quarantine, she’s been creating videos of her online collaborations with various artists, including the Manila String Machine, Mike Swift, Toma Cayabyab, Yosha Honasan, and Asensio’s mother, Iwi Laurel.
Asensio has likewise been writing songs.
For her birthday concert, she lined up 20 songs–all recorded from her and her band’s respective homes.
Performing with Asensio are drummers Bea Lao and Lawrence Nolan, bassists Karel Honasan, Bolichie Suzara and Roger Alcantara, cellist Ted Amper and the Manila String Machine, guitarist Ira Cruz, keyboardist Kim Lopez, saxophonists Michael Guevarra and Alvin Cornista, trombonist
Isla Antinero, trumpet/flugelhorn player Lester Sorilla, and vocalists Mike Swift, Yosha Honasan, Jade Riccio, Arman Ferrer, Toma Cayabyab, and Iwi Laurel.
The show is hosted by Asensio and Kim Lopez, produced by Asensio and Cruz, and edited by Sonny dela Cruz.
