The weekend workshops had high school and college students as well as teachers learning how to construct bamboo-made musical instruments and play the music of the Panay Bukidnon, an indigenous peoples (IP) group found in the mountain barangays of central Panay Island.
Prof. Jose Taton Jr., an ethnomusicologist and a music educator at University of the Philippines (UP Visayas), gave an overview of the Panay Bukidnon’s musical traditions.
The workshop featured Panay Bukidnon cultural bearers Roger Gilbaliga, his daughter Rolinda and Rennel Lavilla of Calinog, Iloilo as well as Concepcion Castor of Tapaz, Capiz.
According to Lavilla, the bamboo musical instruments are usually played during major celebrations among the Panay Bukidnon. The music often accompanies the "binanog" (hawk-like) or the courtship dance.
The weekend workshop also gave a glimpse to what is taught at the Balay Turun-an or the School of Living Tradition (SLT), which was established by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in selected barangays in Calinog and Tapaz.