Local Nonprofit Accepts Entries to the Multi-Arts Competition

While Silicon Valley is world famous for the prosperity of its high tech industry, the local nonprofit Chinese Performing Arts of America (CPAA) strives to make it a center for arts and culture as well.

CPAA announced the 7th Silicon Valley International Multi-Arts Competition, scheduled to take place at the Visual and Performance Theatre of De Anza College Jan 26 to Feb 5.

The competition is meant to advance cultural exchange between the United States and other countries, as well as to provide a platform for international youths with artistic talents, according to Ann Woo, executive director of CPAA.

The competition consists of six categories: classical piano music; folk instruments of Silk Road countries; Vocal (in Mandarin); Chinese folk dance; classical Ballet; contemporary Dance.

Each category will be divided into age groups depending on the demographics of the contestants. Three winners and a live audience's favorite will come out of each age group at the end of the final competition.

There is a $1,000 prize for the Grand Prix of each category, and a $100 for the first-place winner of every age group. The other winners will receive trophies and certificates.

A panel of judges will be formed for each category. All the judges will be distinguished artists in one of the six areas. One of the confirmed judges is Anoushirvan Rohani, a prominent Iranian pianist and song writer who has written some of the most popular songs in Farsi, and has worked with numerous orchestras worldwide.

Rohani, who has a few homes in the United States and Europe but none in the Bay Area, made a special trip to attend the announcement.

Fariba Nejat, a Persian community leader working with CPAA to organize the competition, said it's a great honor to have Rohani on one of the competition's judge panels.

"Many Iranians like myself grew up listening to his music," said Nejat, who has introduced several local Iranian American musicians to CPAA.

Woo and NeJat have collaborated on organzing joint performances of Chinese American and Iranian American musicians. They said it was easy to bring Chinese and Persian folk instrument players together because several Chinese instruments were initially imported from ancient Persia, and they remain identical or similar to Persian instruments today, just with different names.

It was for the historical connection that folk music of Silk Road coutries became a category of the Multi-Arts Competition, Woo said.

The deadline for entries to the competition will be Oct. 30 for international contestants, and Nov. 30 for locals.

Woo said the competition will sell tickets and donate the revenue to charitable organizations, including the Cupertino Rotary Club.

Cupertino Rotary past president and current Councilman Orrin Mahoney said that Cupertino Rotary will be actively involved with the ticket sales.

"We will help CPAA sell tickets, and hopefully this will benefit our international project," he said.

To enter the competition, download the registration form from www.cpaasv.org