Even legends get the jitters

It may come as a surprise to some that seasoned pianist Cecile Licad, ballerina Lisa Macuja and singer Lea Salonga, who continue to light up stages here and abroad, confess to pre-concert jitters.

A blunt Licad says, “I’m always agitated and nervous before every show since I was seven. But as I get older, I’m less afraid of screwing up things. Everything in life is not perfect so why not make an art of screwing up? I’d ask the presentor if I can have a siling labuyo (hot chili pepper), I eat it. The taste keeps me awake.”

Salonga shares that she paces a lot before a show starts, apart from warming up her throat, to free herself of nervousness. She adds, “I can’t sit still. I go through the blocking and lyrics in my head. I stay hydrated and don’t talk too much. Praying keeps my calm.”

What’s going inside her backstage is like being trapped in a cage. Once she releases the first song onstage, she feels fine.

Licad butts in, “It’s like delivering a baby!”

Macuja goes through a full ballet class, doing stretches, bends and jumps to warm up. She keeps 10 pointe shoes in her bag and tries each one on, mentally assigning a pair to a number or act she is set to do. The shoes are lined up beside her makeup table.

She tries not to lose that body warmth in the theater’s air-conditioning. Seconds before she goes onstage, she takes off her leg warmers and blows air into her shoes, a practice she saw and learned while a student in Russia where it is wintry cold. While going through these rituals, her partner at the moment fidgets and reminds her, ” Lisa, we’re almost on.”

Putting three piano, stage and dance superstars is a historic first that could’ve been realized earlier had not a would-be concert organizer balked. The idea remained with Macuja who felt the dream project is worth producing “before I retire. I have to make it happen and work with these two women,” she says.
She self-disparagingly adds, “Of the three, I’m the one with an early expiration date. If I were on a grocery shelf, I’m the one that’s pushed forward.”

Wearing her other hat as producer, Macuja says the major work was arranging their schedules so they can have two weeks, one dedicated to rehearsals under stage director Roxanne Lapus . The latter refers to them as “the three muses.”

The first time the three got together was at a photo studio where the call time was 10 a.m. They were there promptly at 9:30, put on their makeup and costumes with no fuss. Such was their professionalism that the pictorial ended two hours early.

Licad recalls the immediate chemistry that sparked off when she met the other two, “I don’t know, but they look crazy. Parang lukaret!"

Salonga smiles, adding, “That’s the truth in a nutshell.”

Macuja’s other dream is to “bring (the show) all over the Philippines, even on a world tour to show that the Filipino artists can, that our country is not about corrupt officials.”

Already she is getting inquiries on when a similar show will be mounted, but meantime they’re concentrating energies on “The Legends and the Classics” on March 17 and 18 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Main Theater.

Lapus, who has directed dinner theater, romantic comedies and pop singers in the past, assures that she understands “the weight of this project.” The program will respect the individual artistry and integrity of the performer and allow each to join the others as duos and trios.

Pleased that the three women have no diva airs, she says a video screen will be used excessively to add as backdrop and there will not be too much talking, save by Lea (and her short spiels). She says, "We want to remove the kasosyalan (familiar socializing) of a mediocre pop concert.”

Licad says of jamming with the two others, “I’ve always been open to new things. When we’re together, we’re always laughing. That’s a good sign. The vibes are good, the food is good. And the makeup’s nice.”

Salonga says, “It’s not rocket science. We’re just three persons doing something together and we each love doing. I’m a quick study with songs so the stuff we will do is something we can do in our sleep.”

She explains that each of their turning-point moment came early in their lives which makes the viewing public think they’ve been around a long time. “It’s about finding your joy, finding what it is you’re supposed to do. For others, it’s a harder road. It’s finding what it is, and you don’t want to let it go.”-- Elizabeth Lolarga

Originally published by VERA Files and Yahoo Philippines on March 9, 2012

Unrestrained Ranting in Behalf of a Pianist

We haven’t buried the heroic widow yet. Nor have we gotten over the proclamation of Carlo Caparas, Cecile Guidote Alvarez and ilk as National Artists. Suddenly my email inbox is filled with the diplomatic exchange of correspondence between pianist Cecile Buencamino Licad and certain Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) officials, outgoing and incoming.

The gist of this latest controversy, all reflecting how this country is run, is this: The CCP artistic program committee refused to honor Ms. Licad’s commitment to do a provincial outreach concert at Holy Angel University in Pampanga scheduled in the first week of September.

On what grounds, you ask?

The CCP, or Sentrong Pangkultura ng Pilipinas, from whose reclaimed land visual, musical, dramatic, cinematic, literary and other artists should ideally branch out and share their talents/skills/training with the rest of the regions and provinces scattered across our archipelago, claimed first or proprietary rights over Ms. Licad.

Raul Sunico, its newly appointed vice president and artistic director, a pianist in his own right, wrote that her planned Pampanga concert, would preempt her CCP performance with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) in mid-September, 15th and 16th to be specific.

Translation for this blogger: that ticket sales for her CCP concerts with visiting German cellist Alban Gerhardt and the PPO would be affected.

Hello, CCP public relations office, ticket sales, perhaps a third of it (and we’re being modest here), were made possible due to the almost one-man sales pitch freelance writer Pablo Tariman has been doing through his articles and music magazine since early June and through the unofficial texting brigade we started around that period. And we paid for our own tickets, take note. My four orchestra right tickets on those two nights I paid for from money earned as a freelance writer. I deposited my payment in the BPI Family account of the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, the beneficiary of the Licad-Gerhardt-PPO concerts.

Ms. Licad is a thorough professional; she honors commitments and never makes promises that she can’t keep. More than this, she knows who and what she is, where she came from, how to acknowledge debts of gratitude and up to what point payback time is kept, her contributions to this benighted country, especially in deodorizing its bad image abroad.

In the latter, my encounters with some Fil-Ams and foreign creatures go something like this: “What, Cecile Licad is a Filipino? You have a world-class pianist, and she can afford to make New York City her base? I thought Filipina was synonymous with a maid in the US, Saudi and Europe? Sorry, ha, no offense meant.”

But here is Ms. Licad, who didn’t need to but had to explain herself to these idiots sitting in power at what it supposedly the country’s center of culture:

“I still don't believe my performances in the provinces will pre-empt the impact of the PPO concert. As earlier mentioned…, my provincial and two Metro Manila engagements last year didn't pre-empt the impact of the PPO concert; they actually sold out the CCP concert as reflected in the big revenues shared by the CCP and the Buencamino Foundation last year.

“Let me point out that I am doing the CCP program in the provinces for purely artistic reasons: this is my first performance of the Prokofiev C Major Concerto and I wanted to get to know this piece inside and out not just with technical rehearsals but with live audiences interacting with me. If I were doing Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff concertos, there is no need for provincial try-outs. I always try out new pieces many times in various places so I get the maximum result. That's the way I have worked in the last forty years of my career.

“I can see that the program committee's main consideration is the CCP investments and very little for my artistic needs; I noticed that all my points for doing provincial concerts were totally ignored.(italicization and emboldening of lines by blogger) If I may say so myself, I have given CCP and its audiences what they deserve in the last 40 years of my performing life. In this phase of my life and career, I expect no less from the CCP management.

“But your decision is well taken and I will honor my commitment. I am just sad that I cannot share my creative process with my countrymen in the provinces who have very little access to my performances. Since the CCP is financed by taxpayers' money not just in Metro Manila, I thought music lovers in the provinces need not be excluded from the CCP festivities on its 40th anniversary.”

Let’s ask ourselves: Is this any way for CCP officials to treat such a one as Ms. Licad? She is probably the best pianist of her generation internationally. Argentinian great Martha Argerich thinks so, so sure is she of Ms. Licad’s greatness which, I must add, is accompanied by humility and respect for authority.

By its gesture, the CCP has made it loud and clear that provincial engagements that come before a performer’s scheduled presentation on its stage cannot be done under its latest rules (rules conveniently dangled before Ms. Licad when no one, not even her, was aware of them).

I have just overheard an episode of the TV series “Scrubs.” One black woman character railed against a white woman who said something to the effect that classical music cannot be universally appreciated. The black woman said just because she (the black) wasn’t born in Vera Wang diapers doesn’t mean she can’t understand classical music.

Ms. Licad, I will say the words for you because you are a decent person, a darling of a musician, and everyone I know knows I'm neither of those, especially when sufficiently provoked: the current crop of CCP officials, supervisors and an underling, a certain Becca Jose, PPO manager, have not been toilet trained. That said, enjoy your visit to the motherland.