Joey Ayala

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Joey Ayala is a contemporary pop music artist in the Philippines. He is well known for his style of music that combines the sounds of Filipino ethnic instruments with modern pop music. His professional music career started when he released an album recorded in a makeshift-studio in 1982. To date, he has released six albums.

Some of the Filipino ethnic instruments Ayala is known to use include the two-stringed Hegalong of the T'Boli people of Mindanao and the 8-piece gong set, Kulintang melodical gong-rack of the predominantly Muslim peoples of the southern part of the country. He also uses modern instruments in his music, such as the electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums.

He is one of the few Filipino contemporary songwriters who insists on putting his creative energies at the service of cultural/social development, so much so that he has ventured directly in to non-formal education - the running of workshops demonstrating the use of arts as a language for education.

Partial list of awards and honors:

Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. Award for Social Artistry Conferred by the Federation of Catholic Schools’ Alumni/ae Associations (FeCaSAA) in partnership with the Good Citizenship Movement (GCM), 2007

Musical Intelligence Award Conferred by Multiple Intelligence International School, 2007

Datu Bago Award from The City of Davao, “for being an outstanding composer-performer-bandleader-lyricist, arranger, writer who has defined the ethnic character of Mindanao music that he renders magnificently well using his voice and indigenous instruments resulting in the consciousness of the Filipino soul of intimations of its moral values and environmental responsibilities.” Awarded March 14, 2000, 63rd Araw ng Dabaw, Marco Polo Hotel.

Special MAGIS Award for Outstanding Alumni, Ateneo de Manila High School, 1996 “For creating music that delineates the unique Filipino soul, for defining the ethnic character of Philippine music through the use of native instruments, especially in harmony with foreign instruments like drums and acoustic guitar, and for awakening in the Filipino an awareness of its own heritage as a people . . .”

Gawad ng Pagkilala - Komisyon sa Wikang Pilipino. Recognition from the National Commission for the Filipino Language, 1993 Dahil sa paglikha ng mga awiting mayaman sa pagpapahalagang moral sa wikang Filipino at paglalapat ng musika sa pamamagitan ng katutubong mga instrumento.... nakatutulong sa pagpapayabong at pagpapaunlad ng wika at kalinangang Pilipino. (For writing songs laden with moral values in Pilipino, for musical arrangements using indigenous instruments . . . for helping enrich and develop Pilipino culture.)

Outstanding Alumnus in the field of the Performing Arts Ateneo de Davao University Alumni Association, 1993

Nomination Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World Award for Cultural Achievement, Junior Jaycees Chamber International, 1993

The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Award, The Philippine Jaycees, 1989 “for humanitarian efforts directed towards the two objectives of art - as relevant socially-oriented medium and as aesthetic principle”.