UP College of Music Centenary Concert

Marking the 100th Foundation Year of the UP College of Music, a concert dubbed “Sandaang Taon ng Himig at  Tinig: Pagpupugay ng UP Kolehiyo ng Musika” is scheduled on Sunday, 4 September 2016 at the Abelardo Hall Auditorium, Quezon City, at 5:30 PM. Formerly known as UP Conservatory of Music, UP College of Music opened its doors to 104 students who wanted a professional career in music from a balanced theoretical and practical curriculum that was materialized in a modest building in R. Hidalgo Street, Quiapo. The Conservatory was a brainchild of Senator Joaquin Luna’s Act No. 2623, which had the full support of University of the Philippines’ (UP) President Ignacio Villamor, first Filipino president of UP, who envisioned music graduates who would be a pride to the nation.

In its one hundred years, UP College of Music has its vision fulfilled, producing ten National Artists in Music, two of who– Jovita Fuentes and Andrea Veneracion–came from the Department of Voice. The program for the evening consists of music that has instilled the important cultural value for strength in Filipino identity in music such as Lucrecia Kasilag’s Prelude Etnika, Jose Maceda’s Kubing, Ramon P. Santos’s Daragang Magayon, Visayan song “Ay! Kalisud,” Francisco Feliciano’s “Pokpok Alimpako,” and “Pamulinawen,” Lucio San Pedro’s Lahing Kayumanggi, Antonino Buenaventura’s Sa Dakong Silangan, Antonio Molina’s “Hatinggabi,” Felipe de Leon’s “Iba-ibang Kulay,” and “Sayaw Igorot.” Nicanor Abelardo and Francisco Santiago are not in the roster of National Artists awardees because they were long gone in 1972 when the award was instituted. In recognition to their achievements, especially Nicanor Abelardo, who is perhaps the greatest Filipino composer of all times, the immortal kundiman “Nasaan Ka Irog” will be sung as well as Santiago’s “Pilipinas Kong Mahal.”

The concert will feature performing groups of the College such as UP Tugma (Krina Cayabyab, conductor), UP Guitar Orchestra, UP Rondalla (Elaine Espejo-Cajucom), UP Dance Company (choreographer Elena Laniog), UP Concert Chorus (Janet Aracama), UP Madrigal alumnus Arwin Tan’s Novo Concertante Manila, UP Chorus Class (Raul Navarro), UP Symphonic Band (Rodney Ambat), UP Orchestra (Edna Marcil Martinez), faculty of the College such as singers Ramon Acoymo, Maria Carmila Molina, Rainier Cruz, Ligaya Quinitio, Raymond Diaz, Katherine Molina, Rica Nepomuceno, Jonathan Velasco, Albert Roldan (collaborating pianist), Ma. Cecilia Valeña, Fides Cuyugan-Asensio, Alegria Ferrer, and pianists Ena Maria Aldecoa, Michelle Nicolasora, Pia Margarita Balasico, and Carolyn Cheng, who will render 8-hand piano arrangements by Augusto Espino. Josefino Toledo is the concert program chair. Highlight of the concert is the UP Music Centennial Awards which will recognize outstanding music teachers who have propagated love of music for a better Philippine society and for the well being of its citizens. Admission to the concert is free. For inquiries, please call 9818500 locals 2629, 2639 or 9260026.

Music, Capitalism, and the Nation: A Symposium on the Roots of Transcultural Philippine Music

The University of the Philippines College of Music cordially invites the public to an interdisciplinary one-day symposium on the theme “Music, Capitalism, and Nation: On the Roots of Transcultural Philippine Music,” on Thursday, 18 August 2016, Abelardo Hall Auditorium, 9AM to 5PM. A gathering of local music scholars, the symposium will explore the history of music modernity in the country, particularly on the effects of the larger force of late 19th century capitalism in the development of syncretic (transcultural) Philippine music that combined old and new music-cultural elements. Some of the effects of this late 19th century capitalism in the country were the production of the first and only music theory book in Tagalog (paper by Arwin Q Tan), “Print Music Commodification and Costumbrismo” (paper by Jose S Buenconsejo), “Selling Zarzuela” (Isidora Miranda, University of Wisconsin-Madison), “Music Journalism” (Ma. Patricia Silvestre), “Localizing Imported Danza” (Ma. Alexandra Chua, University of Santo Tomas), “Concept of Individual Property in Music” that led to the first music plagiarism case in the Philippines (Jonas Baes). To illustrate the larger ramifications in the incorporation of European cultural presence in modernizing Asia, Dr. David Francis Urrows, special guest speaker from Hong Kong Baptist University, will discuss “Music Education in China under the French Protectorate as Cultural Interchange.” Philippine Studies expert Dr. Ramon “Bomen” Guillermo will be the keynote speaker.

The symposium is open to the public, especially to college teachers in the humanities and social science, with conference fee of 500 pesos (cost for conference kit and admission ticket to Enzo Medel piano concert). The symposium itself is free to students with valid IDs.