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Meet the distinguished judges of the 2025 Palawan International Choral Festival
Meet the distinguished judges of the 2025 Palawan International Choral Festival
An illustrious line-up of jurors has been selected and assigned by the National Association of Filipino Choirs, Inc. (NAFCI) to assess, deliberate, and proclaim the best of the bests among the contestants in the 2025 Palawan International Choral Festival (PICF) to be held in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, from Aug. 13 to 16, 2025.
The Board of Judges is composed of a top-notch Korean Orchestra Conductor, Maestro Jae Joon Lee, as Chairman, with an array of established and highly esteemed music artists in the Philippines, namely Dr. Beverly Shangkuan-Cheng, Dr. Ed Manguiat, Dr. Joel Navarro, and Jonathan Velasco, as distinguished members.
Dr. Cheng, a graduate of Bachelor of Music (summa cum laude) from the University of the Philippines, Master of Music from the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan, is the President of the Philippine Choral Directors Association (PCDA), Chair of the Conducting & Choral Ensemble Department of the UP College of Music, and Artistic Director of the Las Piñas International Bamboo Organ Festival.
She is a prizewinning artist (First Prize at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Graduate Conducting Competition) and recipient of the Levi Barbour Fellowship from the University of Michigan, the Phyllis Curtin Career Entry Award from the Yale School of Music, among others. She was recognized as the 2022-2024 One UP Professorial Chair Award in Music for Outstanding Creative Work and Public Service, the 2023 UP Diliman Centennial Professorial Chair, and the 2025 Gawad Tsanselor sa Natatanging Guro Award, the highest recognition given to a faculty member in UP Diliman.
Dr. Ed Manguiat, h.c., a UP College of Music grad, is the founder of the internationally acclaimed UP Singing Ambassadors (UPSA) and has led the ensemble since 1980. Under his direction, UPSA became a 2-time European Grand Prix (EGP) finalist and won Grand Prizes at the “Concorso Polifonico Guido d’Arezzo” competitions (2001 & 2018.
Influenced by Eric Ericson and Andrea Veneracion, Ed has earned 8 Grand Prizes, 36 First Prizes, and top honors in 13 international choral competitions in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Wales, and Slovakia, among others. He has received conducting awards in the 2nd Johannes Brahms Choral Competitions (2001) and in the 25th BELA BARTOK International Choral Competition in DEBRECEN (2008).
Manguiat has collaborated with four National Artists—Lucio San Pedro, Virgilio Almario, Bienvenido Lumber, and Ryan Cayabyab as composer or lyricist and was conferred a Doctor of Music, honoris causa, by CHED in 2015 for his choral contributions.
Dr. Joel Navarro, who obtained his doctorate in conducting at Michigan State University, is an Affiliate Professorial Lecturer at Singapore Bible College, the DMA Program Adviser at Centro Escolar University, and the major professor in conducting at St. Paul University Manila. Previously, he was a tenured full professor at Calvin University, the UP College of Music, and the Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music. He is currently the music director of HYMNOS, the Hymn and Oratorio Society of the Philippines, and was once director of the Ateneo de Manila University Glee Club.
He is a recipient of numerous awards in education, international choral competition, singing, acting, songwriting, and arranging. Dr. Navarro published in 2020 INSPIRARE: Breathing New Life into Our Music, a textbook on conducting and rehearsal technique, score study, and choral management. He is a published composer of GIA Publications in the United States.
Jonathan Velasco is a much sought-after choral conductor, clinician, and adjudicator in the world today. He and his choirs have won first prizes in major European choral competitions. He regularly adjudicates choral competitions in Europe and Asia, and gives choral conducting workshops and choral clinics worldwide. He currently conducts the Ateneo Chamber Singers.
Velasco was elected the first President of the PCDA in 2008. He was awarded the Pinoy Playlist Music Festival Ryan Cayabyab 2022 Award for his lifelong excellent contribution to Filipino choir music. President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. recently appointed him to the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
The 2025 PICF is supported by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), PAL, among others.