Wala Lang
Millennial musicians have been our unsung diplomats, so to speak. They generate goodwill and bring honor to the Philippines. Tenor Arthur Espiritu has been performing lead roles in leading international opera houses. A European critic wrote that countertenor Kyle Sanchez Tingson’s voice has an “unearthly quality.” Jeffrey Ching composed a full-length opera at age 17 that was premiered at the CCP in the 1980s. He continues to win prizes in Germany for operatic and cutting-edge compositions. Pianist-conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, age 24, has conducted European orchestras. Next month, he is opening Hong Kong Philharmonic’s season. He will be its music director in 2026.
They are following in the footsteps of pre-war and Baby Boomers who performed classical opera lead roles in Milan’s La Scala, Venice’s Teatro la Fenice, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and other world stages: Jovita Fuentes, Jose Mosessgeld Santiago Font in the 1920s and 1930s, then starting in the 1940s and 1950s, Dalisay Aldaba, Isang Tapales, Aurelio Estanislao, Remedios Bosch Jimenez, Eleanor Calbes, Evelyn Manda, Gilopez Kabayao, and Nena Villanueva. In Manila, I remember Conching Rosal as Carmen and Salvacion Oppus Yniguez as Michaela in Bizet’s “Carmen” translated to Tagalog at the FEU Theater.
Now Generation Z has arrived. The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) used to give scholarships to promising young musicians. These were supported by then First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos but the program ceased after EDSA I in 1986. The CCP has revived the program, with the first four grantees beginning their studies abroad in 2023.
The scholars spent this year’s summer break here and gave a farewell concert at Rizal Park a couple of weeks ago. Performing with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra were soprano Lizzie Bett Estrada, pianist Aidan Ezra Baracol, violinist Adrian Nicolas Ong, and flutist Mark Kenedy Rocas. All four are graduates of the Philippine High School for the Arts.
Estrada and Baracol are undergraduate college students of London’s Royal Academy of Music, an incoming junior and an incoming sophomore respectively. Ong and Rocas are enrolled in two-year graduate courses: Ong at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Canada’s Glenn Gould School and Rocas at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Massachusetts.
With its limited funds, CCP scholarship grants can cover little more than student fees and the scholars have to raise any deficiency themselves. Living in London, for example, is not cheap. Food and housing are expensive, particularly in places close to school. I am told that many students, not only the CCP scholars, have to work part time to make ends meet. Some do school administrative work and the rest work wherever they can find it. One of the CCP scholars is a theater usher. A classmate is a pub barista and another is a grocery store handyman. Their life abroad is not all study or fun.
CCP trustees have tried to help.
Quarterly membership meetings of the Philippine-British Association normally feature an invited speaker. (Last June’s guests BTW were no less than the Carlos Yulo and Cynthia L. Carrion, president of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines.)
I happen to be a board member and suggested that, instead of the usual talk, an association meeting feature Aidan Baracol, who at that time was about to leave for the Royal Academy. The idea was approved and Laure Beaufils, the British ambassador, invited the association to hold its May 2023 meeting at the embassy residence. The ambassador went out of her way to welcome the group and made sure that the grand piano was properly tuned. Aidan gave an hour-long concert including Beethoven’s “Seven Variations on ‘God Save the King’”and one of his own compositions. The evening raised funds for Aidan from PBA members’ voluntary contributions.
CCP vice chair Carissa O. Coscoluella did one better. She organized a tertulia at her home and invited friends to attend and share. The afternoon featured Mark Kenedy Rocas on the flute accompanied on the piano by Dr. Michelle Nicolasora. The hour-long program included “Meditation” from Massenet’s opera Thaïs that is usually played on violin and with an orchestra, “Bordel 1900” and “Nightclub 1960” from Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango, and Filipino pieces scored for flute and piano, “Kundiman ng Lahi,” “Panagimpan,” and “Pagsapit ng Tag-araw.” It was a congenial afternoon that raised a substantial sum to augment CCP’s support for flutist Rocas.
CCP trustee Jonathan Velasco also shares the news that three Philippine choirs won Gran Prix awards in top league competitions—Imuscapella of Imus, Cavite in the 29th Bela Bartok International Choir Competition, one of the world’s toughest; Sola Gratia Chorale of Silang, Cavite in Singapore’s 2024 International Choral Festival; and the University of Mindanao Chorale in the 2024 Taipei International Choral Competition.
Filipinos are tops in both sports and music. Doing us proud are Carlos Yulo with two gold medals and Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecion with bronzes in the 2024 Paris Olympics and three Grand Prix awards in music to Cavite and Davao City choral groups.
Bravissimi! Bravissime!
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