Fil-Am singer busy for Unicef

STEPHANIE Reese played Kim in “Miss Saigon” in Stuttgard. Photos by JIM GUIAO PUNZALAN

Until recently, Stephanie Reese had never been to the Philippines where her Bicolana mother, Cris, was born. These days, Reese—a Filipino-American singer and theater actress who has traveled the world as a performer in concerts and stage musicals—is amazed and happy that she’s been spending more time here than in Los Angeles, California, where she lives.

“Things are happening fast… mainly by word of mouth,” Reese says, by way of explaining why she was in Baguio for shows sponsored by the United States Embassy a few weeks ago. She is set to visit Vigan soon for another show, then back to Manila for more gigs with other Filipino artists.

Racial pride

She tells the Inquirer that she holds her her heritage close to her heart. She points out that her maternal roots contributed to a great extent when she landed roles in musical theater productions, such as Kim in “Miss Saigon” in Stuttgard, Esmeralda in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in Berlin and Tiptum in “The King and I” in London.

She has likewise held her own concert at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Racial pride is once more a major factor that motivates her current assignment to record and produce the theme song for the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) quarters in Germany.

“It’s a big deal for me,” she says. “I’ll sing the song for the first time at a Unicef event in November in Cologne and perform it on German television in December. I am the only Filipino so far to be involved in this Unicef celebration in Germany.”

The organization’s office in Cologne, which raises money to provide food and healthcare to children in Africa, will also release an album containing one of Reese’s compositions.

Last month, Reese flew to Manila to start working on the song with Pinoy musicians led by pianist Glenn Lemen.

The original English lyrics of the song, “Come Make a Little Step of Peace,” have been retained for the past 30 years. “But I had to make a few grammatical revisions,” Reese says, noting that different versions of the song have been released—in jazz, rock, R&B, among other styles. “Last year it was reggae,” she relates.

ONLY in her 20s, Stephanie Reese is known for her varied musical taste.

Her rendition, still in rough demo form, will have a prominent classical element. Aside from her vocals, it will include a Filipino children’s choir and the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra.

Only in her 20s, Reese is known for her varied musical taste. “This Is My Life,” a specially produced CD released during her concert at the Music Museum in Greenhills last year, is an entertaining mix of original songs and covers whose styles run the gamut from pop to theatrical.

One track, the curiously titled “Chocka Locka Boom Boom,” which she wrote, is an amusing narrative of a romantic encounter whose highlight is a scene filled with mystery and humor.

She explains that the title was “a phrase that just popped in my head while I was driving one day. Then it became a metaphor for something else. I wanted to write the song in cabaret style reminiscent of Eartha Kitt mixed with a little opera and some Barbra Streisand in her ‘Funny Girl’ days.”

Her usual listening fare, she says, consists of Tracy Chapman, Tuck and Patti, Antony and the Johnsons, Leonard Cohen, Eva Cassidy, Lady Gaga, Adele, John Legend, Lauren Hill, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Maria Callas, among many others.

Liberating

The liberating sense that these artists represent has, Reese admits, helped form her bubbly, outgoing personality—which she says is the opposite of who she was as a child growing up in Seattle. “I was raised by a conservative Catholic family in the States,” she says.

“When my Filipino grandparents moved in to help raise me, it became an über-conservative setup,” she adds, laughing. “Performing allowed me to think and behave out of the box.”

She sees no problem in shuttling between the United States and Manila, and would like to do things on a bigger scale in the next few years. “I want to keep traveling and singing,” Reese says. “I’ve been doing things independently; it would be nice to have a record label back me up here and in the States or in Europe.”

Drawback

A possible drawback if she decides to tread the mainstream route is dealing with an industry standard that tags artists with specific images and genres. Would she mind being typecast… as classical? Jazz? R&B? Standard? Pop?

Reese replies, matter-of-factly: “I’ve been advised by Lionel Richie, Patti LaBelle and other people that ‘the best thing is to be who you are.’ If that means being in a diverse market then I’ll stick to that. People who conform and are not true to themselves don’t last in the business.”

The truth is, Reese would do anything and everything that could match her multiple talents. She has even agreed to sing as a guest in pop star Erik Santos’ concerts on Aug. 12 and 13 at the Music Museum.

But before that, she wants to watch the noisy American heavy metal band Korn at the Araneta Coliseum.

She quips, “I’m from Seattle, remember? I also like rock.”