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

April showers, finally

Image sent by Carmencita Sipin Aspiras

In the part of Baguio where we live (15 minutes away from the central business district without traffic), we have been experiencing daily afternoon rains, including one heck of a thunderstorm, since April 15. We, the home-bound family members, could almost hear the plants and trees going glug glug glug as they soak in and store the water. The rains last, like the trip to our neighborhood to and from town, 15 minutes tops, enough to cool the air for Baguio has also been feeling the stifling humid air that lowlanders complain about.

I received a lot of encouraging feedback from blog readers about my April 12 entry here about watching our grandchild and the garden grow. Psychologist Yoya Bulatao, who I finally met at a Fully Booked writing workshop that Neni Sta. Romana Cruz and daugher Aina organized over a year ago, cited my grandchild Kai as "the most interesting flower of all."

Pianist Carmencita Sipin Aspiras wrote from far California, which has not been spared of drought, and shared the above photo that warms me to the tip of my toes as I like to write with feet unshod. She wrote: "What a refreshing topic! And so apt for Spring. Lucky Kai will blossom into a beautiful person as she is nourished by your and Rolly's love in the form of a lovely garden." The image she sent me looks like an illustrated cross-stitched quotation.

Thank you, Heavenly Gardener, for listening to our pleas for rain.

Mainly Mozart

Pianist Carmencita Sipin Aspiras conducting a masterclass on interpreting the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Steinway Boutique in Makati

Ma'am Chita, as I've taught myself to call the piano virtuoso, was a revelation as a teacher at a masterclass she held in November last year with four lads participating (Hansel Ang, Franz Christian Tanuwijaya, Denzel Abarquez and Nathan Samuel Gemina).

Gentle but firm, she reminded them that their role as musicians is akin to a detective's. "We are like spies out to detect criminal spots. Our job as musicians is to detect those spots where we can make meaningful and beautiful music," she said.

She brought in a bit of music history, mentioning how Chopin admired Mozart so much that the former wanted his music to be played like his idol's which is simply.

She encouraged the young pianists to aim "not just for a crisp piano sound but a singing sound, not just to sing the music but to also imagine a conductor leading you and an orchestra."

I never thought that a master musician would be so scrupulous about details--I always thought this applied to editors who pushed us to put God or the Devil in the details of our reports. "Pay attention to the minutest details," Ma'am Chita exhorted. "Imagine the Austrians dancing (to Mozart's music). Keep experimenting on the sound produced, on the melodic line with the inflections, the rise and fall of the voice. This sounds simple, but it is difficult to produce."

She pointed out that what matters is "not how fast or how loud we play with our fingers running down the piano. The test for a musician in playing Mozart is to play him beautifully until you reach the point that is most sublime." It's a lifetime's work and requires maturity. Time is on the young musicians' side.

Congratulating Hansel Ang, the baby of the group, after handing him his certificate of participation

Smile! Mozart is watching. Photos by Babeth Lolarga

The elegant pianist returns home—with her memoir

The elegant pianist returns home—with her memoir