From: World Tibet Network News, Wednesday, July 12, 1995.

By Thubten Samphel

NEW YORK, 8 July --- Tibetans in New York and New Jersey celebrated the Dalai Lama's 60th birthday by organizing a grand musical concert in Manhattan on 8 July.

The New York concert brought together a diverse group of musicians. Philip Glass, Yoshi Shimada, the Urban Bush Women, Dadon-la, Tsering Wangmo, Ngawang Khechog, Karma Gyaltsen and the New York Tibetans' very own Cholsum Dance Group contributed to creating a two-hour evening which left the audience of the packed hall mesmerized, and wanting more.

The concert was a true tribute to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The enthusiasm and the goodwill of both the audience and the performers was a testimony to the Dalai Lama's ability to gain the respect and the admiration of people around the world.

But the one item which brought the house down was not Philip Glass's Etudes 1 and 2 nor the soaring, majestic voice of Tsering Wangmo or that of Dadon-la, but the combination of Ngawang Khechog who played on the Tibetan long-horn and Australian aboriginal didgerido, and Yoshi Shimada, who played the drum. Yoshi Shimada's fast-beat drumming and the groans and grunts produced by Ngawang Khechog on the long-horn was so devastating that for a moment the audience was left unsure whether it was in some lonely monastery up in the Himalayas or in a blues concert in midtown Manhattan. Still unsure, the audience asked for an encore. Ngawang Khechog, one of the foremost contemporary Tibetan musicians, and Yoshi Shimada, the most sought after drummer in New York, obliged.

Asked about the appeal of his music, Khechog said, "I am not presenting the message of compassion in a religious or a Buddhist way. Rather I am trying to present what the Dalai Lama says is good human culture, that the need to have compassion is universal."

The concert was organized by the Tibetan Association of New York and New Jersey.