Notes on a Cellist

Music writer (and lately memoirist of sorts) Pablo A. Tariman sends his friends regular updates on the goings-on in Filipino musicians' lives and careers. Cellist Victor Michael Coo recently got married apart from maintaining a busy concertizing schedule.

Just the other day, I found my notes on him and the article I submitted for a publication that went unused due to "space limitations," according to the editor. Well, such is the fate of freelance writers.

So this is my belated toast to Mr. Coo as he forges ahead with his life partner with Bach and Beethoven playing in the background.

And to think that the cello was almost an afterthought as his instrument of choice after he initially trained in the violin, piano and flute. A few months before he auditioned for a slot at the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA), his mother, his first piano teacher, convinced him to learn how to play the cello.

When he was accepted at the PHSA, he trained under family friend Amador Tamayo and Wilfredo Pasamba. After graduation Coo headed for Boca Raton, Florida, and spent two years under Johanne Perron. In 2002, he began studying with Evelyn Elsing at the University of Maryland. He describes her as gifted with “a musical imagination beyond the notes printed on the page.”

He won first prize in the 1997 National Music Competition for Young Artists. In the US, he has won three concerto competitions in Michigan, Florida and Indiana.

Coming from a family of musicians (sister Cecilia is a violinist and a soprano while elder brother Jonathan is a pianist and tenor), he believes that “music is a language that you don’t necessarily have to learn. It’s just like any first language. My mom had a lot of piano students so I heard music constantly. It was so much a part of my childhood that I didn't really feel that was something beyond the norm.”

He acknowledges Yo-Yo Ma for helping increase people’s knowledge about the cello, adding, “He has served as an inspiration not only for young people to take up the cello as an instrument but also to explore other languages within music using the cello. I think it’s wonderful that there’s a surge of classical musicians from Asia.” Coo does a lot of chamber music with Koreans at his school and thinks that their country is producing “a lot of wonderful players.”

During the school year, he spends his time rehearsing in chamber groups and with an orchestra. But when he wakes up, he likes to start the day with personal practice. He also uses up “a great deal of time listening to recordings for pure pleasure.” He ends his day with more personal practice.

Regarding the Philippine government’s lack of support for artists, Coo turns practical. “Well, a government has to worry about a lot of things and unfortunately, the arts program can only flourish when the economy is stable. Artists do need a great deal of support from the government. Talent can only go so far in a given situation. But that shouldn’t stop an artist from dreaming and doing his best within this situation.”

He is motivated to go on because no matter where he has been, “where there are music lovers, there’s a great appreciation for what we musicians do.”