Carmencita Sipin Aspiras and the art of the piano

Cover of Carmencita "Chita" Aspiras' CD

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."

With Ate Chita Aspiras at Sunshine Place in Makati where she held a masterclass for piano majors and graduates last year

Knucklehead Nelly

While watching soprano Nelly Miricioiu's animus and duende take over her at Monday's press conference, I was reminded of a fictional character that I've always identified with in my pre-teen years when St. Paul College of Quezon City mounted the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. There before me at Cravings Restaurant's function room at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall was a living, breathing, laughing Nellie Forbush, the cockeyed optimist herself.

After her two-hour or more "recital" of her life from childhood to today, I called the Emile De Becque of my life to gush about La Nelly, what a force of life she is, how her statements apply not just to singing but to writing and the living of a creative life and how she deserves wider coverage in mass media. At which point, Rolly, my husband, started singing phrases from the song "Volare", and I doubled up laughing. The cab driver must've thought I had gone insane!

Below are photos of Ms. Miricioiu, alone, with her husband Barry Kirk, with our friends in media and the music world. Thank you, Pagcor, Amara Resort, Cravings and all who're making Ms. Nelly's visit an occasion for her to think about returning in the near future. Cue for me to die happy.

Quotable Nelly: "It's an amazing feeling to be back. I didn't intend to leave Romania. I felt I could be an artist and a patriot at the same time." She defected from Romania and was granted British citizenship, but she still sings at events that benefit Romanian charities. Photos by Babeth Lolarga

The Miricioiu-Kirk couple chooses their first meal for the day. The evening before when they had just arrived from London, she passed the drinks menu to Barry and said, "Darling, choose the wine. You're the specialist."

She's also a screwball kind of comedienne in the Lucille Ball mold. She always manages to keep writer Pablo Tariman in stitches. She calls him "a quiet boy from the province." Now that sets those of us who know him laughing.

A conductor once told the young Nelly who was a bundle of nervous energy: "You have expression in your little finger. That is enough." She considered that a good tip because it enables the music's simplicity and elegance to emerge.

With film critic Mario Hernando

With soprano Glenda Velasco Liao who won't be in the masterclass at Ayala Museum but will be part of the technical staff operating the supertitles

With Al Andres, one of the hardworking associates of Culture Arts Events Organizers who doesn't look like he has lost his entire shirt wardrobe from risking all to push and market concerts like tomorrow's "Nelly Miricioiu: Live in Manila" at 8 p.m. at Meralco Theater

With small but terrific soprano Myramae Tapia Meneses whose solo voice soared at the Manila Cathedral and Luneta Grandstand during the visit of Pope Francis

Romania's and the Philippines' soprano greats Nelly and Camille Lopez Molina, respectively. Love Nelly's polka-dot stockings!

With Angel Reyes Nacino of the Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation

This guy's dopamine level will remain at a high level for the rest of 2015. This is all the loving he needs.

When Monday meant Nelly

Boosted by a breakfast of vitamins and hopia and a late lunch of Hizon's ensaymada and hot chocolate at its main branch in Ermita, Manila, I managed to make it to EDSA Shangri-La Mandaluyong City to welcome Nelly Miricioiu.

Al Andres and Joseph Uy of Culture Arts Events Organizers, the guys behind the production "Nelly Miricioiu: Live in Manila", assigned me the role of flower girl (never been one in all of my childhood). I gladly accepted with aplomb!

I am counting the hours until I hear her voice live. I don't know if I'll ever be content again with YouTube videos or music CDs after the March 6 experience at Meralco Theater.

The virtue of being punctual is rewarded. Otherwise, Pablo Tariman would've done the honors of offering this lovely bouquet from Market! Market! to another of his soul mates, the diva Nelly. When Al clicked my camera, he said, "O, di parang nasa Panagbenga ka rin? Mas maganda pa!" I wanted to hum Ravel's "Bolero" into his ear.

Not wanting to be upstaged, Pablo rushed home earlier to shower and change costume. The extra trip home paid off. He pulled off the fresh-from-my-Caribbean-secret-hideaway look.

The hug and reunion. Ms. Nelly's cry of "Oh Pablo, oh my God!" sounded like a line from Bellini

That's Nelly's husband of over 20 years, engineer Barry Kirk, behind her while she kisses Pablo.

Flower girl's voice goes high pitched in excitement as she requests one of opera's greats to turn to the camera, please.

Ms. Nelly hugs the Teddy Bear of the music world, Joseph Uy.

In her mother country Romania, Nelly was given an honor that is equivalent to the royal title of "Dame." And a gracious dame she is. After the initial hugs and kisses, she invited everyone for a drink and said it was on her. Of course, Joseph and everyone else refused the offer. She was, after all, in the country that had enfolded her as one of its own when she left Romania during its troubled times.

Vital, animated, expressive--that's how Dame Nelly is in person.

She accepts the gifts from the flower girl: food for the body and soul--taisan cake from Hizon's and a copy of the first Philippine PEN Journal which has "healing" for its theme. My essay "The Strength of Roots or the Need for Flight?" is included in it. When she saw the word "healing" on the blue cover, she said, "I believe in these things." She told us of a hard time in her life, how she wandered into a bookstore, discovered a book on the Tantric form of healing, how it changed her and deepened her spirituality.