‘Jazzy Little Christmas’ for non-traditional school in Baguio

Romero de Guia as Evita Peron in a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lissa Romero de Guia, vocal artiste, writer and mother, headlines “Jazzy Little Christmas,” a fund-raising dinner-concert to benefit the eight-year-old Balay Sofia, a Steiner-Waldorf school in Baguio City. The event is on Dec. 13 at Hill Station restaurant inside the historic Casa Vallejo on Upper Session Road.

De Guia, whose son Kalinaw also goes to the school, was a cast member of the original German productions of “Miss Saigon,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Rent.” She was the first Filipino actor to play the lead role of the narrator in “Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat.” She also served as the first understudy for the role of Gigi in the United Kingdom tour of “Miss Saigon.”

She understudied the role of Mimi for Atlantis Production’s Manila production of “Rent.” Now a freelance writer, she has been living in Baguio, her father’s hometown, for six years with her husband, the filmmaker Kidlat, and their two children.

Among the songs she will sing are: “A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square,” “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love,” “Hallelujah,” “Pasko Na, Sinta Ko,” “Lullaby in Birdland,” “My Favorite Things.”

She will also share the stage with pianist Jessica Cruz Ladines . Ladines is a voice and piano teacher at the Normita Pablico Music Studio, former choirmaster of the St. Louis University Glee Club, vocalist-pianist of Cortado Band and an arranger of choral and string ensembles. She and De Guia worked together in an Open Space Production concert version of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” also in Baguio.

Romero de Guia with husband Kidlat and son Kalinaw

De Guia said she enrolled her son at Balay Sofia “because I wanted him to be in school that allowed him to be a child. I’m not attracted at all to schools that force early academics. I want him to enjoy.”

Steiner-Waldorf schools were first built after World War I in Stuttgart, Germany, to foster and guide a new generation to build a harmonious society. Balay Sofia started by offering classes in early childhood. Today, it has classes up until the fourth grade. It is expanding by adding more grade levels. The expansion means more classrooms and outdoor grounds are needed.

The fundraising committee, led by parent Michelle Tan-Dance, is looking for at least 3,000 square meters of land within a 30-minute drive from downtown Baguio. The new school is envisioned to house more students and grade levels.

Parents, teachers and students at Balay Sofia

With yearly visits from parent advocates from the Manila Waldorf and Acacia Waldorf Schools in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, as well as longtime Waldorf teacher David Simpson from New Zealand, the parents of Balay Sofia are guided into building the ideal school they want for their kids. “Jazzy Little Christmas” was organized for this purpose.

Restaurant owner Mitos Benitez is lending her space for this cause. She said, “I’m always happy to have Lissa perform here.” The last time De Guia performed at Hill Station was at the Baguio Writers Group’s pre-Valentine fundraiser in 2015. The house was full.

Benitez created a special menu for the event to include: Mrs. Claus Welcome Soup, Hill Station Green Garden Salad, a choice of three dishes for the main course (vegetarian pasta dish with mushroom and truffle oil, home-baked ham or white snapper fillet), as well as dessert and iced tea.

For tickets, contact 0917-511-6945 and (074) 424-2734. Or visit Hill Station.

Belated pats on everyone's back

With less than a month to plan, plot, market, rehearse, look for sponsor/s, the Baguio Writers Group under Jennifer Patricia A. Cariño, my hijada, I always like to boast, produced in cooperation with Hill Station Restaurant "Fever: An Evening of Love Songs and Poetry" early this love month. Before the Panagbenga, the Philippine Military Academy alumni reunion, before other Arts Month activities took off.

Being writers, the group must have the good or bad habit (depending on how you look at it) of getting last-minute dopamine-cum-adrenaline shots that enable us to converge and put together our energies, whether we're composing commissioned handwritten love letters, baking heart-shaped rum cakes or singing and reading our hearts out to keep The Word alive.

To all who were there for us, family, friends, lovers and other strangers, a big thank you for making Feb. 6 a night that continues to sparkle in our memories. Onwards to the next project!

Guitarist Ian Paolo Acosta and singer Lissa Romero de Guia testing the Hill Station's sound system before the evening performance Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Merci Javier Dulawan and Padma Perez "womanning" our "Love (Letters) for Sale" table at the Hill Station Bar. On the piano is one of the pre-ordered rum cakes baked by Toottee Chanco Pacis. We had, if my count is correct while it was my turn to watch the table, five commissions that evening. More came in through our online campaign.

Jenny Cariño reads her lovely poems from the cell phone's screen.

Kervin Calabias recites from memory Joi Barrios's poem honoring the disappeared (desaparecidos).

BWG vice president and literature Prof. Junley Lorenzana Lazaga reads an Iluko poem by Leona Florentino, a cultural and literary heroine.

Lissa enchants, enthralls and engages us with her wonderful voice. To this day, her encore piece "Lullaby of Birdland" is stuck as my last song syndrome.

Lissa, queen of the night, with her bouquet and some members and officers of BWG. Thank you, whoever took this shot. I was in Cloud 9 then.

Writers' minds, hearts, hands at work

My painter friend, Corazon Patarata, who has retired from the foreign service, reminded me in an SMS yesterday, after she learned that I was recovering from surgery, to "go easy muna. There is a time for writing with passion again. Let it wait awhile, you will have new perspectives."

I surmise this is why we have friends apart from blood kin. We can ignore the kin's reminders to guard our health but not our friends'. I noticed many changes after the surgery to remove a tumor that turned out to be benign. Since the incision cut through the leftmost side of my face and neck (that brought about jokes before my hospital confinement that I was disappearing from the world temporarily for a face-lift or cosmetic surgery), there is still numbness and a dull, throbbing ache.

I can't chew without exerting much effort so I now prefer soups, soupy oatmeal, soupy champorado, soft breads with melted butter and cheese, viands that have broth like sinigang with veggies softened. Crunchy stuff like tortilla chips cause great discomfort and a loud ringing in my left ear, no matter how I crave for salty and meaty food. I can no longer, hope this is temporary, put the entire spoon in my mouth. Suddenly, I have to eat daintily!

My way of coping--which is what I do with my other ailments--is to keep my mind, heart and fingers busy. Just what Pope Francis recommended: use our minds, hearts and hands, think, feel and do. For God's glory.

Well, Cora, if I stop, I feel the spirit that moves me to write even a blog entry will be the one to take leave of me. I do appreciate friends' concerns.

Lissa Romero de Guia promises to bump and grind to the song "Let Me Entertain You" from the musical Gypsy. Her program includes Broadway and jazz favorites.

Ian Paolo Acosta, guitarist, singer and composer

But February is looking to be a busy month for this cultural worker. On Feb. 6, the Baguio Writers Group is mounting a pre-Valentine dinner concert, "Fever: A Night of Love Songs and Poetry," at Hill Station, Casa Vallejo, Baguio City. Featured are Lissa Romero de Guia and jazz-blues guitarist Ian Paolo Acosta, all Baguio-based talents, apart from our resident poets who'll outdo one another in passionately reading or performing their love poems.

As if pushing a concert ain't enough alongside selling tickets (only P850 each inclusive of a full-course dinner with a Moroccan theme plus a drink), the BWG "think tank" also thought of a sidelight (side show?) to our concert: a booth for "Love (Letters) for Sale."
To paraphrase new member Nash Tysmans, the BWG members blessed with good to fine penmanship will serve as Cyrano de Bergeracs to help the timid, receding or inarticulate to express their feelings for real Roxanes. But these letters can also be love letters to parents, children, pets. We can't guarantee a "Yes" to romantic proposals, and we won't accept break-up letters.

The letters don't end there. They come with a heart-shaped rum cake with semi-fondant icing baked and packaged by everyone's favorite mamita and BWG senior member, Toottee Chanco-Pacis. We know her for her to-die-for brownies, lemon squares and now, rum cake!

A Google document form has already been set up where those keen on tapping the services of eloquent love letter writers can write their specifications. Just copy and paste to another tab or window the link that follows:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yMt_SqJa1yXYpZpramYWTqUcyaYyGDHzB6ub5O5eCUU/viewform?c=0&w=1

Truly, the world I live in will not slow down to wait for the full restoration of my senses. I'm off antibiotics and pain-killers, the doctor pronounced me fit to work (does that include "to socialize", too?). Since my outer ear is numb and only parts of it will recover feeling in due time, I was told by him, half-kiddingly, that I can have it pierced in several spots and wear all the studs and earrings I want. Which may be the right accessories for a Moroccan pre-Valentine party!

Some of the BWG members at their planning meeting (from left): Merci Javier Dulawan, Nonnette Bennett, Toottee Chanco Pacis, the blogger with her grandchild, Junley Lazaga, Frank Cimatu, Ben Tapang, Padma Perez, Lissa and Jenny Cariño.

“Opera vs. Broadway” for Sendong’s survivors

LISTENING to a mishmash of operatic arias and Broadway hits, as though an iPod shuffle was being executed as a “sensurround” experience, is a lovely way to spend an evening. It turns lovelier because this one happened on a Monday, unexpectedly and pleasantly jump-starting a week of hard work.

When visiting Hong Kong baritone Wayne Yeh and the Philippines’ Lissa Romero de Guia, with dependable piano accompanist Mary Anne Espina, engaged in a mock battle called “Opera vs. Broadway,” it was in the name of philanthropy. EDSA Shangri-La Hotel offered its capacious Isla Ballroom rent-free for this benefit concert for Typhoon Sendong survivors.

Yeh and de Guia are volunteers of the Art of Living Foundation, a non-government organization (NGO) that continues to give trauma relief to adult and child survivors of the disaster in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities. The foundation has 145 chapters worldwide with the Philippine chapter involved in helping rehabilitate Bilibid prison inmates and survivors of super-typhoons.

Denise Celdran, the foundation’s breath works instructor, said what sets this NGO’s work apart is its focus on removing stress and negative emotions through simple breathing, sound meditation techniques and yoga stretches. An audio-visual presentation before the concert showed how the survivors became calm and more optimistic after they learned these exercises in the tent cities or basketball courts.

She added that these exercises put smiles back on people’s faces and peace in their minds, enabling them to function better and relish donated food, clothes and temporary shelter.  Celdran pointed out how many thousands more need to be reached and empowered.

 LISSA ROMERO DE GUIA

 Thus, what de Guia called “a ping pong between opera and Broadway” was thought up to raise more funds for volunteers who will help restart other lives.

A sidelight was a silent auction for the same cause featuring works donated by these visual artists: Tosha and Gus  Albor, Wesley Valenzuela, Stephanie Lopez, Felix Bacolor, Kidlat and Kabunyan de Guia, Oliver Olivete and Marisa Romero.

Observing how people get mired in past traumas and worry unnecessarily about the future, Celdran said the foundation teaches people “to be in the present, to be in the moment” so they could them live “artfully, gracefully, peacefully.”

She said these are possible by learning how to manage the mind, emotions, stored memories, intellect that passes judgment, ego that expresses and processes bad memories. This management of all layers of experience, she said, leads to a self that can contribute to improving society.

 WAYNE YEH

Lanky baritone Yeh, whose credits include singing as a lad before Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and appearing in Opera Hong Kong’s productions of Turandot, Mozart’s Requiem, Carmen, among others, continues to train with voice coaches Rita Patane and Pietro Spagnoli in Milan, Italy. That night, he entered from the back of the ballroom, clad in black tuxedo and pants, white bowtie and dark glasses. He held a cordless mic and warbled “Figaro” from The Barber of Seville while shaking hands with some members of the audience.

The rest of the evening he alternated use of the center stage with de Guia. Her theater experience includes being in the original German cast of Miss Saigon in Stuttgart, the Narrator in the original German cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (the first Filipina to play that role on the international stage), and playing Gigi in Miss Saigon, United Kingdom tour.

Semi-retired from theater after going into writing, she showed that she still had “it,” a wide vocal range. She moved from alto in South Pacific’s “Bali Hai” to middle range and to a belter of a soprano in “Home” from The Wiz.

She displayed her acting chops without a costume change. In her black and gray long dress with a panuelo top, she was a flirt in “I Enjoy Being a Girl” from Flower Drum Song, a besotted Eliza in “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady, a tragic Eponine in “On My Own” from Les Miserables, a noble woman in “Something Wonderful,” a wistful illicit lover in the medley “I Have Dreamed” and “We Kiss in a Shadow” from The King and I, which she reprised with Yeh in a duet after an earlier song on one-upmanship with him, Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” from Annie Get Your Gun.

The practice of breath work enabled de Guia to hold notes far longer than possible. This had a heavily partial audience cheering for her. Similarly, Yeh tried to match her with his solos of “Our Father,” “Ave Maria,” “You Raise Me Up” and encores (“O Sole Mio” and “Santa Lucia”).

Inspirational teacher Sri Ravi Shankar defined music as “sound in harmony, silence in clarity.” That night, silence and sound came together without clashing.--Elizabeth Lolarga

First published by Vera Files/Yahoo Philippines, March 31, 2012
Photos by  RONALD VERZO