Meet the foremost champion on radio–and now on cable TV–of Filipino classical music artists

Bert Robledo talking about his mission for Filipino classical music artists before his stroke. Those who would like to contribute to his medical fund can email his daughter Celine Robledo Fonacier for the bank details at celinefonacier@gmail.com or go to this site: https://www.generosity.com/medical-fundraising/medical-fund-for-bert-robledo

Meet the foremost champion on radio–and now on cable TV–of Filipino classical music artists

The oddly named soprano

Girly and girlish despite her manly first and second names of Micah and David, plus a masculine nickname of Mico, with a sharp guttural end-stop on the last vowel "o", soprano Micah David Galang is this year's first featured artist in the Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation's Young Artists Series. She sings a program of Mozart, Delibes, Donizetti, Francisco Feliciano, Lucio San Pedro and Agot Espina. Expect to be knocked off your seats when you hear the voice that DZFE's Bert Robledo described as reaching "the stratosphere's high notes." Photos by Babeth Lolarga

With her assisting artist Farley Asuncion (and on performance night, guitarist Angelica Vinculada), Mico will do the Philippine premiere of Feliciano's “Boulevard dela Rosa Rojas” for voice, piano and guitar. It was originally written for Mico's teacher Naomi Sison. Another Filipino treasure of a song to watch out for because it's rarely heard, if at all, is Espina's "Kundiman ng Lahi." This is already making tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Ayala Museum lobby a night to remember.

Her parents, whose romance blossomed at a choir, named Mico after male prophets in their desire for her to become a strong woman. Here she is with Farley, Joseph Uy and Angel Reyes Nacino of the MCO Foundation. Before a performance, she has her "quiet time" no different from her daily devotion either upon waking or before going to sleep." Asked why this devotion is important, she said, "I like to meditate on a biblical verse and write in my journal. I hold on to my faith and personal relation with Jesus. That is where everything should be centered."

Standing at five feet and one inch, Mico has an outdoorsy side that allows her time from her rehearsals to backpack with friends for surfing lessons at the Zambales Crystal Beach Resort where "the waves are nice. I wasn't the sporty type until I tried it. I loved it! I also like to sit on the beach, and just stare at the horizon or watch the sunset. And ponder. Faith is at the core to my being a singer."

The MCOF Young Artists Series is long-standing program of the MCO Foundation that provides performance opportunities for young, budding artists to give them the exposure, experience and endorsement and help them show their talents to the public, and carve a name in the classical music field. Many of the artists that the MCOF has featured have won music scholarships and competitions and are doing well in their careers.

For tickets, call the MCOF at 997-9483 or 0920-954-0053, CAEO at 782-7164 or 0918-347-3027 and at Ticketworld 891-9999.

The violin in the lives of 2 families

“Is that a love-bite? A weird rash?! Oh. No. You’re a violinist.” –Daniel Ross, “10 worst things about playing the violin,” www.classicfm.com

“Sapper Ernest Johnson etched notes into the back of his violin during the Great War, turning the instrument into an invaluable diary of his journey through the trenches of Europe…The detailed diary covers three quarters of the back of the instrument, telling the story of Johnson's travels from August 8th 1915 until 18th February 1918 where he finishes the diary with the words: ‘Finished with army’. Johnson used the instrument to perform for his fellow front line soldiers while in the trenches…Johnson's granddaughter has now restored the violin so she can learn the same songs performed by her grandfather in the trenches, including war-time favourites like Roses of Picardy and Keep the Home Fires Burning.”— from the picture story “Soldier uses violin as World War I diary,” www.classic.fm

Teenage violinists Bradley Bascon and Jeline Oliva will not find themselves in situations wherein the slight bruise on their necks will be misconstrued as anything more than the result of intense practice. If it is in their mothers’ powers, neither will they find themselves scratching out the story of their days on their precious instruments in a foxhole in a war-torn country.

Fil-Am Bascon, only 14 but already a soloist who has played in top concert halls in the US, Europe and his parents’ country of origin, where he dazzled audiences in Makati, Cagayan de Oro (CDO) and Cebu cities, is back in California. Being a nerd, too, with the highest academic average of 4.0 at the Chaparral High School in Temecula, California, he is focused on a Sibelius piece for his next performance.

Bradley Bascon Photo by Daisy Jane Sande

His mother, Theresa Jallorina-Bascon, said her only child, who’s also with the Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra in Claremont, CA, was elated from “teaching and inspiring young talents in Cebu. He enjoyed giving a masterclass to young violinists at the University of the Visayas.”

She recalled her boy’s Philippine debut at Ayala Museum in July: “The room was full. People were enthusiastic, curious, wanted to meet and listen to this ‘unknown’ Fil-Am violinist. I held my breath when he played. After the first song, I knew he was enjoying it. I could tell that he wasn’t scared or nervous so I breathed a sigh of relief. The heavens must have been watching. The rain stopped. It turned out to be a beautiful night.”

She added, “In all the venues, the audience gave him a standing ovation. I feel joyful, blessed and very proud. It warms my heart to know that he’s accepted here, not just in Europe.” He was the sole Philippine representative in the Beijing Violin Competition last month.

Meanwhile, Jeline, 17, received the turning point news of her life: admission as the only Filipino of 10 short-listed applicants out of 300 from all over the world at the prestigious Mannes College New School of Music in New York City.

Her mother Judith, who organized with some friends a fund-raising concert in her daughter’s behalf in late July so the NYC dream could be realized, said, “Studying in New York is expensive. Unless you’re extremely talented or very rich, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere as the song goes. It’s the center for strings, the melting spot for rising musicians. We’re thankful that Jeline passed the challenging live audition at Mannes.”

Violin teacher Gina Medina Perez, Oliva and her accompanying artist Mary Anne Espina Photo by Babeth Lolarga

This new high school graduate is being trained by no less than Gilopez Kabayao as his form of help while sponsors for her higher education are being sought. Gina Medina Perez, another of Jeline’s teachers and Manila Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, has high hopes for the girl who she once described as palaban.

In an interview with this writer last year, Jeline said of her instrument of choice, “The violin can bring out all the emotions a person has…Maybe it’s because when it is held, it is near the heart.”

Judith said of the challenges ahead: “Honestly, we’re already losing hope. We need to raise almost $50,000 a year, excluding housing. Jose Mari Chan wants to chip in, but we still need more sponsors to raise the amount. He is concerned because the opportunity has presented itself, but financial help is truly needed. He wants her to push through with her higher studies this year.”

Jeline and Judith Oliva Photo by Babeth Lolarga

She never pressured Jeline to prepare her for the Mannes audition. “She was focused and determined. I asked the help of her St. Anthony School teachers who gave her special activities so she could have time for her audition—from pre-screening to the live audition. She had a supportive environment. Prayers helped a lot.”

When her child goes onstage, Judith feels “happy, excited, nervous all at the same time because of the audience’s expectations. I pray to keep us relaxed. We put our trust in God.”

Tetchie echoed her: “After I see Bradley play solo with an orchestra, I tell myself, ‘Ok, you can breathe now.’ He has played at the Mozarteum in Austria, at Teatro Verdi in Italy. I realized that were it not for him, I wouldn’t be encouraged to see those concert halls. I’d probably just save my money for retirement.”

Both mothers not only credit the musical genes that run in their families but the prenatal period when they exposed the infants to music.

Judith said, “I was a classroom music teacher and rondalla trainor at the Department of Education in Naga City when I was pregnant. I always listened to classical music whenever I relaxed. The was the first music Jeline heard when I gave birth to her. It was her lullaby.”

Tetchie recalled, “When I was pregnant, I played CDs of Baby Mozart, Baby Einstein. The ear phones I placed on my tummy area. After Bradley was born and when he’d get fussy, I played Baby Mozart or anything classical. He calmed down.”

When he was eight or nine years old and he was slack on his practice period, she’d threaten him: “I can sell the violin and use the money for a new car. He’d go, ‘No, Mom, please.’”

He said of the 1897 made-in-the-US James McCauley violin, “Mommy guards it with her life. She puts it on the plane’s overhead bin when we travel.” An admirer of Isaac Stern and Jascha Heifetz, Bradley chose to concentrate on the violin. He told his Mom: “If I learn the piano, I can’t carry it with me anywhere.” He plays the piano to relax after three hours of daily practice on a school night and five to six hours (spread out during the day) of focused practice during summers.

The piano was Jeline’s first instrument. Her piano teacher alerted Judith that her daughter is “a fast learner gifted with perfect pitch.” During the girl’s elementary years she could perform virtuoso piano pieces (“Dizzy Fingers,” Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude and Polonaise in A. flat Major, op.53, a whole movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, among others).

Jeline (with Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra principal conductor Olivier Ochanine beside her mugging for the camera) has played with the PPO as soloist. Photo by Babeth Lolarga

She said, “At her young age, we couldn’t believe that her tiny fingers could produce brilliant musical sounds. When she was nine, she tried the violin for the first time. I couldn’t believe when she started to play it without the tape on the finger board as guide for the notes to be played. She learned fast.”

Jeline was 13 when studied under Gina. That was the time she focused on the violin instead of the piano. After a year, she won the first place during the NAMCYA. She was also one of the top five out of 24 contestants at a Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines competition in the same year that she was preparing for the NAMCYA violin competition.

Young Bascon, left, with DZFE’s Bert Robledo, pianist Rudolf Golez, Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation’s Angel Reyes Nacino, mom Theresa, dad Conrad and an aunt on the Jallorina side Photo by Daisy Jane Sande

Bert Robledo, host of DZFE’s “Bravo Filipino,” emphasizes in his program how ranking public officials must be seen in concert halls to set the example in terms of music education and appreciation. At the same time their own exposure would make them realize the excellence of Filipino talents. - Elizabeth Lolarga

Teepee Aguilar, soprano of the hour

Teepee with her assisting artist, pianist Farley Asuncion, and her dad, architect Efren Aguilar  Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Of the adjectives that have been used to describe the voice of lyric soprano Stephanie Anne “Teepee” Aguilar, the ones that have captivated me best as listener-admirer are “creamy” and “radiant.”

More will be added to the list when we watch and listen to her again at the professional debut recital of this 2012 Jovita Fuentes Vocal Competition prize winner on Aug. 20, Wednesday, at 7 p.m. at Ayala Museum.

The Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation (MCO) Foundation has made of the museum lobby its presenting stage for most of its concerts this year (in July, it was the renamed Lanuza Hall at the Philippine Stock Exchange bldg. in Pasig City for the memorable Mostly Mozart Festival).

And it’s also almost SOP for the MCO Foundation workhorses (executive director Angel Reyes Nacino and consultant Joseph Uy—they with the biblical names) to bring the talents for live patikim presentations at Bert Robledo’s noontime program, “Bravo Filipino,” over DZFE The Master’s Touch (that’s 98.7 on your FM dial).

For just this past Thursday’s radio program, Teepee prepared Mozart’s “Or sai chi l’onore,” Anna’s aria from Don Giovanni; Schubert’s “Gretchen Am Spinnrade”; the American spiritual “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” arranged by Margaret Bonds; and Nicanor Abelardo’s “Mutya ng Pasig.”

With DZFE's Bert Robledo

When he learned that she earned her first bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management, major in hospitality management, from the College of St. Benilde, he said in deadpan fashion (off the air), “Puwede ka ring singing  kaldero.”

She said her mother Gigi, who’s good on the piano and works as an interior designer, wanted her only child to take a college course that would reassure her of a future.

But Teepee has been singing since she was three, a soloist no less in nursery school. Her father Efren recalled how Teepee was always chosen as choir leader during her elementary and high school years at the Tabernacle of Faith Christian Academy in San Juan, Metro Manila. For a time she was choir director of The Word Community Church which holds its Sunday worship at Unilab’s Bayanihall Hall in Mandaluyong.

Until a friend invited her to the University Santos Tomas, and in 2009 she entered its Conservatory of Music. She said of that decision, “I prayed to God, telling Him singing is what I do best. Let’s see how far God will take me.” She began as part of the big chorus in Cavalleri Rusticana. Manong Bert quipped that the experience put her literally in the pits (orchestra pit).

Singing live at the DZFE studio with Farley Asuncion on the piano

Asked what makes a good opera singer, she mentioned talent and finding good teachers who would notice the talent and hone it (in her case, soprano Rachelle Gerodias in the beginning and now tenor Lemuel de la Cruz), dedication, heart  (“You’ve got to love what you’re doing, memorize different languages and blockings and making all these look flawless”), and hard work.

Again Manong Bert couldn’t help quipping that the likes of Anne Curtis have a lot of hard work to do.

Teepee’s schedule these days include studying for roles on her own (she’s appearing in the operas Noli Me Tangere and La Boheme) before turning up for rehearsals, practicing with a pianist or whoever is teaching or directing her and the others. She said she enjoys preparing for an opera because it’s “grand, colorful and always big."

She ended her hour-long interview interspersed with singing at DZFE with “He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Manong Bert couldn't help saying how compelling the spiritual was in the light of Robin Williams’ suicide, saying, “There’s no need to feel hopeless, no matter what you’re experiencing or going through.” - Elizabeth Lolarga

Relaxing after the interview 

For tickets to Stephanie Aguilar's concert, call TicketWorld at 891-9999, the MCO Foundation at 750-0768 or 0920-954-0053 or CAEO at 762-7164 or 0918-3473027. 

O Bradley boy

Bradley Bascon performing live at the DZFE studio with assisting pianist Rudolf Golez. Young Bradley opens the Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation's Young Artists Series 2014 on July 28, Monday, at 7 p.m. at the Ayala Museum Lobby.

FM radio station DZFE's Bert Robledo, who must have been the late environmental Odette Alcantar's punning partner in her Blue Ridge tertulia years, assured me after I turned up at the Far East Broadcasting Company's Ortigas Center Office that I needn't worry that I had left my camera at home. I brought everything I needed to cover his "Bravo Filipino" program at noon yesterday wherein his featured guest was Bradley Bascon who, at 14, is the most promising Fil-Am violinist.

Mang or Manong Bert, as I prefer to call him out of respect for his age (I don't have to disclose that, do I?), assured me that I had no cause to panic by pointing to his temple: "I have a photographic memory."

As I was giggling, he signaled to Daisy Jane Sande, programming assistant of 98.7 DZFE The Master's Touch, to take care of my photographic needs. And there was more assist coming from Angel Reyes-Nacino, Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation executive director who was also a guest, Ana Jacinta Trinidad (she'll hate it if I just say she's sports writer-poet Recah Trinidad's niece) and Bradley's lovely mama, Theresa Jallorina Bascon. They all volunteered to also take or share pics.

Ordinary miracles--these gestures are called.

The California-based violinist with his mom Tetch

Ana Jacinta Trinidad (right), who says she's named after her two grandmothers, takes a selfie with a new acquaintance.

From the get go, Mang Bert described Badley as displaying "a masterly artistry," putting him in the same league as Diomedes Saraza Jr., Regina Buenaventura and other young violinists with Philippine roots.

Bradley and Rudolf at the DZFE music studio in Bert Robledo's noontime program "Bravo Filipino"

Like most good musicians, Bradley is more expressive in his playing than in conversing, and he showed the masterly touch that Manong Bert is so proud of when he first heard the boy rehearsing before the show. He played, among others, John Williams' adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, Ben Zubiri's "Matud Nila," a Cebuano melody whose title means "according to them." Earlier, before he went on air, Manong Bert, who used to sing in a choir with soprano Evelyn Mandac as soloist, threatened to sing the main character Tevye's part. But when it's time to be serious, he's as sober as a judge.

Of his musical family, Bradley said the genes come from both sides but especially from his Dad Conrad's. "We sing at parties. It gets really loud."

He doesn't consider himself a prodigy; he'd rather call himself as "more of a talent who needs more honing."

Bradley listens to his mother's reminder. Tetch, a St. Paul College alumna from kindergarten to college and still actively working as a freelance accountant, says she always tells him, "Be humble. No matter how talented you are, if you don't use your talent properly, God will take it away."

For his July 28 concert, his program is made up of compositions for the violin by Mozart, Winiawski, Monti, Kreisler and Saint-Saens.

Instant Bradley Bascon Admirers' Club. From left: kibitzing babushka, Ana Jacinta Trinidad, the teenage violinist who also excels in his academic subjects, Mang Bert Robledo, Rudolf Golez, Angel Reyes Nacino, Bradley's mom Tetch, his dad Conrad and a Jallorina aunt.

For tickets, call TicketWorld at 891-9999, the MCO Foundation at 750-0768 or 0920-954-0053.

Photos courtesy of Ana Jacinta Trinidad, Angel Reyes Nacino, Daisy Jane Sande and Theresa Jallorina Bascon