We've been pen pals since 2015, my Ate Chita and I. Handwritten missives have crossed the Pacific Ocean from my Pasig mailing addy to her home in Fremont, California, and back. Our professional relationship started when I was asked to edit her memoir "At the Piano and Beyond" which is scheduled for a second printing.
I get a rush whenever I see her familiar handwriting on an envelop. Her penmanship has a distinctive quiver which she attributes to what her doctors call "basic tremors." It is not Parkinson's disease. It is just basic tremors that may be due to the body's decline.
She assures me that the tremors haven't affected her piano playing in the least bit or her ability to memorize lengthy pieces. On the contrary, at every homecoming recital, usually organized by the Cultural Arts Events Organizer (CAEO) made up of Al Andres and Joseph Uy, she gets better and astonishes new and old audiences with her capacity to give the music Masters their due. And that rich, sonorous sound she coaxes from her instrument can only come from her; she has a unique way of attacking the keys.
She is one of those musicians for whom retirement is an insipid word. In her recently released CD of piano works by Rachmaninoff-Kocsis, Schubert and Brahms, the biographical note on her has her saying when she would retire from public performance and piano pedagogy: "I remain a student who continues to learn. Music is an eternal world of beauty, too vast to explore."
In her interview with young writer Joyce Tan, also found in the CD liner notes, Ate Chita continues to talk about the transcendence of music: "No other chore or activity can transport someone into the spiritual realm."
Congratulations to all the people behind the CD project, especially the HSTL Foundation for the Piano for producing it in line with its mission to promote and maintain "the Filipino public's interest in the art of the piano."
No comments:
Post a Comment