Cheer Factor: Aussies pick Filipina to write, record songs in LA

CEZKA Mariz Lapurga. contributed photo

MAASIN CITY – A native of this capital of Southern Leyte province, now based in Australia, has just made her townmates proud.

Cezka Mariz Lapurga, 18, is the only Filipino among 15 teenagers from Australia selected by the Australian Institute for Performing Arts (AIPA) to record an eight-track album in Los Angeles, California this September.

She didn’t expect to make it when she applied for the 2011 Singer Songwriter Project Los Angeles in Sydney.

Jump for joy

But she literally jumped for joy when she read the e-mail from the director of the organizing talent management that she had been accepted.

“Both the team in LA and Australia were really impressed with your tracks and would like to offer you a place in the cast…” wrote Marg Haynes, AIPA Director for International Programmes & Talent Development, in his e-mail.

This meant that Cezka would be part of the select group that would write songs for the album in Sydney and then go to LA in September to rehearse and record an original album, which will then be mastered in London.

Haynes told Cezka that, as part of the project, she would also work with industry professionals in the United States.

Boot camp

Her parents, Edgar Lapurga from Baguio and Marlyn Dublan from Maasin City, were equally ecstatic.

The couple, now based in Brisbane, immediately sent e-mails to their relatives and friends to break the news.

Cezka’s once-in-lifetime journey started in July, with a two-week boot camp in Sydney. She and her group have finished composing their songs for the album.

She described the experience as “overwhelming.”

“Aside from our singing-songwriting group, there were 90 other artists doing their glee club project,” Cezka said in an e-mail to Inquirer.

“Being the only Filipino (and only Asian) in the group scared me a little at the start, but it proved to be an advantage on my part because it gave me a chance to stand out,” she said.

Fundraiser

The teenager said LA producers Chris Hayman and Brian Morrison were “nice” to work with. Haynes was approachable, she said, and  made the experience less stressful and more exciting.

Cezka is mounting a benefit concert in Brisbane this month to raise funds for her trip to LA.

Her talent was discovered when she was 7 years old in the neighborhood karaoke in Maasin City, according to her father, an architect.

She was often invited to sing during Sunday Masses in Barangay Dongon, and in special gatherings and school programs.

In 2002 she migrated with her family to New Zealand after her mother, Marlyn, found a job as a nurse there.

The family transferred to Brisbane when Cezka was 14.