MEDIUM RARE

Nedy R. Tantoco would have celebrated her 78^th birthday last Saturday, July 20, which was the date chosen by her son, Anton Huang, for a memorial concert at the chic and totally charming Ignacio Gimenez Theater at the CCP complex.

Nedy’s friends, admirers and the musicians whom she helped and supported through the years filled the theater (good for 236 seats). Lin Ilusorio Bildner waxed nostalgic, “We were schoolmates.” Ping Valencia was teary-eyed when she headed toward the exit. Ching Cruz and Millie Reyes “wouldn’t have missed this for anything.” Babette Aquino, on vacation from Paris, said she hadn’t quite recovered from a bad fall, but here she was, using makeup to camouflage  the black-and-blue on one cheek. Charisse Chuidian described Nedy as a real lady, her goodness not a put-on.

The event was invitational, intimate, in a way that the gracious (but gritty when required!) Nedy would’ve totally approved. The repertoire was more romantic than dramatic, and the audience approved, showing their enjoyment with hearty, hearty applause at the end of every piece. In all, soloists, ensembles, and Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under Conductor Herminigildo Ranera set the mood – or did they come under the influence of the music as much as of their audience? – and called it a night with some of the most lovely love songs ever written in Filipino. As Rachelle Gerodias Park put it, the scene won’t be the same without her Ninang Nedy.

Also present were US Ambassador MaryKaye Carlson, Edie and Del Yap, Nes Jardin, and glass sculptor Ramon Orlina, who created a special piece in honor of Nedy, as much a patron of the arts as she was an intrepid entrepreneur who ruled Rustan’s with a silver wand. Alas, one formidable project Nedy won’t be able to complete is gathering into a readable book “a ton” of all the clippings, notes, and pictures left behind by her mother Glecy, founder of Rustan’s.

Musicians on stage and in the audience recalled how Nedy sponsored their shows out of town and abroad, or financed the repair or replacement of their instruments. And if she wasn’t selling tickets she was buying them, or spending her own money as when she produced the nearly-impossible-to-stage opera, Turandot. Whence come another Nedy?