Kultura Kapwa is a traditional ensemble presenting the indigenous music and dance of the Southern Philippines.

TEAO SENSE (left)

The 90’s Bay Area Underground Hip Hop scene was the birthing ground for Teao Sense as a cultural community artist. Teao’s love for Hip-Hop and community took him on a 20+ year journey through experiences beyond his own expectations. Fresh outta high school, Teao Sense went from selling cassette tapes on the streets of San Francisco to touring Europe, Japan, Indonesia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, New Zealand, Samoa, Morocco, Oman, Cyprus, Nepal, Philippines, Bali, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, and Tanzania.

In 2002, Teao Sense established Audiopharmacy - a world hip-hop ensemble that inspires to make music that is unique & avant-garde, yet always speaks the language of the people. The group harmonized collectively to intricately weave together artistic and cultural inspiration, with wisdom from many parts of the Earth. As a community, Audiopharmacy became a hub for collaboration, creativity and cultural exchange.

AZEEM WARD (right)

Azeem Ward was raised in California, as a Bay Area native. He began learning flute at age 10 and became a multi-instrumentalist in high school. Influenced by multiple genres such as classical, jazz, funk, and r&b, Azeem began to generate his own personal style in improvisation. In the 2010s, Azeem began to receive opportunities to perform throughout the United States and Europe. He met Teao Sense and joined the Audiopharmacy crew in 2018. He has also collaborated with artists such as Gina Madrid, Jennifer Johns, and DJ Underbelly. He has also been featured on specials by Jimmy Kimmel, Vice Magazine, and the Independent as well. Azeem humbly continues to improve his craft in performance, production, and education.

Joshua Icban is a working musician from Vallejo, CA. As a professional guitarist, he has played with Bay Area Grammy award winner Fantastic Negrito, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and hip-hop collective Grand Nationxl. As a composer and sound designer, he has worked with KulArts, Cellista, Awesome Orchestra and Bindlestiff Studios. His original work utilizes multigenerational sounds and techniques to compose living reactions to the inherited world. Josh's work has been featured in spaces such as the Asian Art Museum and CounterPulse. In 2018, he completed his MA in Ethnomusicology from Cal State East Bay, chronicling the immigration timeline of Filipinos to the United States and the many experiences and impacts on the development of music and culture in California.

Recently he completed the original music score for ‘In the Belly of the Eagle: Man@ng Is Deity’.

Conrad J. Benedicto is a teacher, author, and kulintang musician who studied with Master Danongan Kalanduyan from 1997 to 2016. He was Master Kalanduyan’s apprentice within the Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Apprenticeship Program in 2007 and again in 2013. He teaches social studies, environmental education, and kulintang music at Balboa High School in San Francisco. In 2018, Conrad received an individual artist grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to compose original kulintang music for his project called, “Kulintang Dialect.” Musalaya’s Gift is his first fantasy novel.