Pure, unplugged

Prof. Arturo Molina leading the 90-year-old Manila Symphony Orchestra, the oldest in the country and in Asia

The new performing arts venue at the Circuit Makati (formerly the Sta. Ana racetrack) allows for instrumentalists and vocalists to perform without anything to enhance the sound. "Pure, unplugged" was how Jeffrey Solares, executive director of the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO), described the sound when the MSO played its final run-through this Saturday before the concert "Love in the Time of Opera" started.

Billed as a pre-Valentine concert, the event came to be within less than a month when an MSO concert was postponed and something had to replace it since some musicians are full-time salaried people and had to be involved in something. Solares sounded out Camille Lopez Molina, artistic director and vocal coach of Viva Voce, because he believed that an opera-based concert was the easiest to sell.

She was game, and the team-up with the orchestra was set in place. It was also an opportunity to help raise funds for the travel and living expenses of the two Viva Voce members, sopranos Myramae Meneses and Renee Michaela Fajardo, when they fly to London in August as scholars of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. (Incidentally, MSO bassoonist Ariel Perez is a Guildhall alumnus and full scholar, too.)

Also in Viva Voce's favor was the availability of tenor Arthur Espiritu and baritone Noel Azcona. The same went for stage actors Nonie Buencamino and Teenee Chan who waived their fees and gave their all for love of music. The universe was conspiring for this show to succeed.

The audience was treated to steamy love duets, all the more amazing because the singers-actors could twist and turn their bodies while not losing a beat, not affecting their voices' volume. There were physically unusual pairings like the one between the towering hulk of a tenor in Mark Bautista and the sweet and petite Iona Ventocilla, who has the role of Mimi down pat, in the timeless "O Soave Fanciulla" from La Boheme. But then opera is where suspension of belief is called for. The role of tubercular Mimi is more often than not sung by a robust soprano.

As Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, Lopez Molina had the build and dignity of age to match Azcona's Count Danilo. Theirs was a subtle battle of the sexes that ended with love triumphant.

Glenda Liao (in orange gown) is Monica and Raymond Yadao is Lukas in their duet "Makikiliti Kang Totoo" from the Severino Reyes zarzuela Walang Sugat.

But the duet that blew my head away was not between a man and a woman in the throes of passionate love but the obvious affection between two girls walking by a river and gathering flowers: Lakmé, daughter of a Brahmin priest and played by Meneses, and servant Mallika, played by Fajardo, from Delibes' French opera Lakme. This famous flower duet has been sung by superstar pairings from Korea's gift to the world Sumi Jo and Ah-Kyung Lee to Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca to grand dames of opera Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne. Now we have a Meneses and Fajardo to hold a candle to them.

It was the MSO's and Viva Voce's first time to perform at the ProMac Spotlight Center. Surely, this is a sign of more enchanted evenings to come. Kudos to everyone involved in this production!

A choral rendition of Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" served as the encore after the concert closed with Bernstein's "Tonight" and balcony scene. Among those in the picture are Meneses, Chan and Anna Migallos. Photos by Pinky Lolarga Susi

MSO's masterstroke

The MSO under Prof. Arturo Molina about to take a bow at last week's "Opera Vs. Broadway" at Ayala Museum.

The Manila Symphony Orchestra's masterstroke this year in attracting an ever-increasing number of followers in Metro Manila is pitting popular music fare with the classical. In its nine rush-hour concerts this year alone, we've seen them do "Bach Vs. Beatles," a concert that the MSO later brought to Baguio City along with "Soundtracks and Symphonies" as part of its Music Everywhere outreach program.

Even with a serious program like July's "Transfigured Night" (music by Schoenberg), the program never failed to engage. Always there is an educational component--a conductor or MSO official faces the audience to give the context of the music. After all, to continue to exist in this generation of millennials, the MSO has to use the media the kids are used to for social marketing (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Mailchimp) and for staging (attractive PowerPoint presentations projected in the background).

Each concert is entertainingly annotated by Jeffrey Solares, the orchestra's executive director, who knows his audience's kaliti by making references to popular figures or ideas in a manner and a language that are also pop. He banishes all notions that classical music is only for the elite and the erudite. He encourages more people to attend live performances instead of settling for YouTube or recordings because of the elements of excitement and unpredictability, saying, "Lots of things can happen--a voice can croak, strings can break..."

He defines opera as a musical art form that emulates Greek theater and formed by poets, philosophers and musicians who had studied Greek drama. To open last week's program of "Marriage of Figaro," the MSO played Mozart's "Overture to Marriage of Figaro," an opera that Solares describes as controversial during its time in the last 1700s because it dared to poke fun at the dukes, duchesses and other members of the royalty and it was from the point of view of the servants.

Michaela Fajardo, soprano with a creamy voice

What made the concert doubly special was the participation of some members of the country's premier vocal ensemble, Viva Voce. Soprano Michaela Fajardo surprised us immediately with the aria "Voi Che Sapete" or "Tell Me What Love Is." It's a textured voice--high and deep, if that were possible. Plus it had volume that could extend up to the back row of the capacity crowd. Impresario Joseph Uy, if he had been there, would've described the voice's quality as "creamy" to mean a pure lyric voice.

Carlo Mañalac may look skinny and fragile for a tenor but his voice has power.

Solares disclosed that Fajardo was his violin student for four years. When she wasn't turning up for lessons anymore, he was happily surprised to learn that she had shifted to voice as her major. Young, fresh-faced tenor Carlo Mañalac showed a nervous quiver in his voice in the initial notes and lyrics of Donizetti's romanza, "Una Furtiva Lagrima" from the opera L'elesir di amore. Solares noted how operas are all bound by one theme: love or doomed love.

Our favorite aria was sung: Musetta's aria "Quando Me En Vo" from Puccini's La Boheme with soprano Iona Ventocilla proving that she can alternate the roles of the suffering seamstress Mimi and the coquettish Musetta. (By the way, the chamber version of La Boheme will be restaged by Viva Voce on Nov. 26 at Ayala Museum after the acclaimed summer presentation of the well-loved opera at Baguio's Hill Station. Last Tuesday's museum audience had a glimpse of the dramatic dynamics and singing of Ventoncilla as Mimi and Mañalac as Rodolfo in their duet "O Soave Fanciula.")

The rush-hour concerts, meant to draw Makati's young professionals so they can skip the after-5 p.m. traffic, are short enough not to require an intermission, but the MSO instead played the sweetly melodious intermezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana" that had the audience heave a collective sigh at the end. For this alone our evening was made.

There was, of course, the accession to popular fare: overtures from My Fair Lady and Westside Story, songs from Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll and Hyde where tenor Carlo Falcis proved he could be a belter in reality TV shows cum singing competitions, Rent and Les Miserables. For an encore, the MSO obliged with the overture from Chicago.

I confess to being biased. When the classics face off with pop, the classics win by a knockout.

Textiles and textures

In recent days and the past week I found myself in places I normally don't frequent: malls! Official volunteer duties required that I be there to help document preparations leading to tomorrow's La Cenerentola at 8 p.m. at the Meralco Theater. In between listening to live music from the Manila Symphony Orchestra conducted by Darrell Ang and focusing my old camera on the looks and gestures of musicians, I would, as they say, window-shop with no intent of bringing out my wallet.

My camera did the work for me. Among my Pinterest boards ("pinning" to me is more fun than waltzing from shop to shop) is one dedicated to Patterns and Textiles. Here are some embroidered textiles I found at a tela shop at Glorietta 5. They make you wanna reach out and touch.

It's the process, not the final product alone

And documenting the process has been my assigned, more likely a self-imposed, task during the making and mounting of Gioachino Rossini's La Cenerentola, the two-act comic opera that goes onstage Aug. 15, Saturday, at 8 p.m. at the Meralco Theater in Pasig City. Of the many things I do for love these I like to kiss the day goodbye with.

Hey, Mister and Mister Good-looking! Maestro Darrell Ang (left) is the most sought-after Asian international conductor today and is La Cenerentola’s music director and conductor. He leads the Manila Symphony Orchestra, the country's oldest at 89 years old, on opera night. He is the Bretagne Orchestre Symphonique du France music director. Tenor Arthur Espiritu, looking fresh despite having just disembarked from his plane from Europe at 1 a.m. on this day of the press conference, is Don Ramiro, the role that put him on the world operatic map. He's a sensation in Europe, and this blogger hopes that in his home country Arthur receives the same recognition factor as the idol of his childhood, Gary Valenciano.

Guy on left is the most hardworking freelance journalist I know in this hemisphere. He also gives nicknames to artists that stick for a long time. Pablo A. Tariman once called Arthur the "Prince of Cantabile." Indeed this prince of high Cs is that and more, a humanitarian, too, who was among the first to respond to the post-supertyphoon Yolanda relief and rehab efforts

Media oldtimers are reliable at press cons with a strong cultural angle. Seen at Gerry's Grill before lunch was about to commence and as they waited for the opera talents to come in are (clockwise): Pablo, Amadis Ma. Guerrero, Alex Dacanay, Bibsy Carballo, Chit Roces Santos and Vergel O. Santos. After meeting the stars of the opera, Chit observed, "It's an impressive, good-looking cast. Gone are the days when opera singers looked like two-door refers." In the next table Barbara Mae Dacanay of Gulf News Asia is shown interviewing Arthur and other music artists.

The Maestro with blogger Adrian Lontoc whose area of concentration is music and the arts

They play full-blooded sisters to one another and nasty step-sisters to Cenerentola (or Cinderella). They are Myramae Tapia Meneses and Tanya Corcuera.

Another looker is baritone Byeong In Park who will play Dandini, Don Ramiro's (played by Arthur) valet. The Saturday event also marks Byeong In's official and first-time appearance on a Philippine stage. Byeong In is married to the Philippines' Rachelle Gerodias, soprano, and has a baby boy with her.

The voice of American mezzo soprano Karin Mushegain we hear for the first time at the Steinway Manila Boutique when she rehearses with the rest of the cast and Maestro Ang. She has Armenian roots, resides in LA and came to Manila for the first time with a list of to-eat places and stuff. To her left is Alvin Seville, the assistant conductor who Maestro Ang brought with him at his expense from Singapore to ensure a perfect production.

Intently studying the music while rehearsing it at the same time are Arthur, Maestrao and Najib Ismail, who served as repetiteur

Maestro and the Manila Symphony Orchestra practice with such focus at Glorietta 5. The MSO being gypsies, except for a small office unit along Roxas Blvd. in Malate, the members use the mall for open rehearsals. Until such time the City of Manila or whatever institution or philanthropist offers the MSO a more permanent space, mall goers never had it so good, listening to the classics performed live instead of hearing the usual piped-in music.

For tickets, call Ticketworld at 891-9999 or the Cultural Arts Events Organizers at 997-9483, 782-7164 or 0920-9540053 or 0918-347-3027. CAEO can schedule ticket delivery for free.

Transfigured by music

I'm writing this on the last day of July, the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola for whom this prayer was composed:

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do Your will.

St. Ignatius of Loyola,
pray for us.

Front, back and front of the Maestro with some MSO members Photos by Kimi L. Fernandez

You can say today's blog is an offering to the ones who keep the music alive. They help us rest from our labors so we can be energized again to do the Lord's will.

If you grew up on what to others is the "fairy tale" of the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph the Worker and Jesus Christ, the poem "Verklärte Nacht" or "Transfigured Night" by German writer Richard Dehmel makes you think of the Holy Family in a big and bigger way. I don't claim knowledge of the context in which the poet wrote it.

Thano Adamopoulos, the visiting Belgian-Greek conductor who led the Manila Symphony Orchestra, particularly its string section in Arnold Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht," first turned around to explain to the audience the sounds we were expected to hear to express the emotions going through the protagonists in the poem.

This is a case where a poem inspired the music. My eldest child Kimi, who's into contemporary and pop music, accompanied me to this concert. She was overwhelmed (okay, impressed) by Schoenberg's music despite its initially alien sound. She said of Maestro Adamopoulos's handling of the MSO--"hindi siya pa-sundot-sundot lang". What she meant was that after we heard a mini lecture followed by the performance, by George, we got it! The music wasn't that strange anymore. It was profoundly moving and yes, as the maestro said, cinematic or almost like a film score.

And it was to me the story of Joseph, Mary and the Son of Man in her womb. The two persons in "Transfigured Night" weren't plain sweethearts. I could imagine the expression on Joseph's face as Mary revealed she was with child, and it wasn't his. He is stunned before he accepts and tells her he will raise and embrace the baby as his own. Makes the few remaining hair on my arms go up.

Transfigured Night

Two people walk through a bare, cold grove;
The moon races along with them, they look into it.
The moon races over tall oaks,
No cloud obscures the light from the sky,
Into which the black points of the boughs reach.
A woman’s voice speaks:

I’m carrying a child, and not yours,
I walk in sin beside you.
I have committed a great offense against myself.
I no longer believed I could be happy
And yet I had a strong yearning
For something to fill my life, for the joys of
Motherhood
And for duty; so I committed an effrontery,
So, shuddering, I allowed my sex
To be embraced by a strange man,
And, on top of that, I blessed myself for it.
Now life has taken its revenge:
Now I have met you, oh, you.

She walks with a clumsy gait,
She looks up; the moon is racing along.
Her dark gaze is drowned in light.
A man’s voice speaks:

May the child you conceived
Be no burden to your soul;
Just see how brightly the universe is gleaming!
There’s a glow around everything;
You are floating with me on a cold ocean,
But a special warmth flickers
From you into me, from me into you.
It will transfigure the strange man’s child.
You will bear the child for me, as if it were mine;
You have brought the glow into me,
You have made me like a child myself.

He grasps her around her ample hips.
Their breath kisses in the breeze.
Two people walk through the lofty, bright night.

Saraza both at work and at play

The second part of the concert "Heart, Strings" featured violinist Diomedes Saraza Jr. as soloist in Bizet's "Carmen," Louie Ocampo's "Kahit Isang Saglit" and Willy Cruz's "Sana'y Wala Nang Wakas." MSO Executive Director Jeffrey Solares revealed that the former prodigy was just "Babes" to the MSO when he was a kid. Radio man Bert Robledo calls him "Junjun."

By whatever name he's called the whiz kid from Juilliard School of Music treated the audience to kilig to the bones music meant for drama-ramas or teleserye. Ayos ang gabi! What a good night the 15th of July was.

Souvenir with Maestro and my friend Joseph Uy who's my private music tutor

Baguio folk pool resources to get ‘Bach vs Beatles’ concert treat

Baguio folk pool resources to get ‘Bach vs Beatles’ concert treat

Steppin out with my babies

"Was it sprinkling or raining? It sounds like a conflict that will never be resolved. The cuteness is unbearable though, that is not up for debate." - a tweet from http://content.lifeisgood.com/

April rains, not just showers, are assuring that May flowers will be around for Baguio residents and visitors alike.

Meanwhile, our resident cuties, The Wee One and her older summering-in-Baguio cousin Machiko Skye (a.k.a. Max), are as close as Siamese twins since Max and her Wowa Pinky came up last week. As hosts, we welcomed the infusion of little people's voices and giggles in our home. During their time together, they did the rounds of Burnham Park's playground, went boating on the artificial Burnham Lake, ran around the garden of Camp John Hay, ate in and ate out (outdoors on the veranda or in small restaurants with their elders Pinky, Granny Suzy and Kimi), played indoors.

Kai and Max at the Maryknoll Ecosanctuary's courtyard Photo by Rolly Fernandez

The crowd (partial view) that turned up to watch the MSO's morning matinee of "Symphonies and Soundtracks" Photo by Anna Leah Sarabia

They even attended a Manila Symphony Orchestra concert at Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary's courtyard just this past Saturday, sitting under a big colorful parachute with the rest of the audience on a sunny Saturday.

When I had a quiet conversation with the two to ask what instruments they saw at the concert, they piped up: "big violins! small violins! big drums! flutes and horns!" They couldn't name the others by their proper names, but that's okay. The sight and sounds of a full symphonic orchestra were enough for their and other little people's music education. Children being children, they also remember how, while they were watching, their hair and heads grew hotter and hotter from the sun.

They and their elders got a thrill when concertmaster and first violinist Gina Medina Perez approached them to say "Hello" upon recognizing the kids' faces at an MSO Academy recital last year. Max got her cheeks pinched.

Today, a Monday, I invited the wee ones plus my niece Bianca for a stroll in the neighborhood and some gross-motor play before Max departs with her elders today. It is their Tita Bianca's 13th birthday tomorrow so she's ending her Baguio summer by returning to her Antipolo fold.So happy birthday, too, Bianx, you were, and still are, an adored one like our wee ones.

Bianca takes a picture of Max, the one with the tiara (which her young cousin pronounces as "tirara") and Kai with the curly tops.

Kai demonstrates to Max how jumps are done in the park's small circle of rocks. I like to call it the village's mini-Stonehenge.

The kids run to look for the next rock from where they can take their next leap.

The cousins with their swing "pusher" and "booster"

I live for the privilege of capturing a facial expression like this one.

The girls meet new faces in the neighborhood, breastfeeding mom Joy and her cutie of a son Leon.

Then it's time to sit by, look at and smell the roses. Kai is unsure if she wants anymore of that healthy morning sun.
Photos of the cousins and Bianca by Booboo Babeth

'Bach Vs. Beatles' rematch and MSO's Music Everywhere in Baguio

Queue outside the museum. That's historian Benito Legarda Jr.'s back on the right.

The size and mix of Bach Vs. Beatles audience--it's any concert organizer's dream

Of the rush-hour concerts that the Ayala Museum has hosted for Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO) since 2013, none matches the standing-room-only crowd and ovation that the country’s oldest orchestra at 89 years received for “Bach Vs. The Beatles.”

Even before the museum’s doors opened on March 26, two orderly queues formed, one for those who reserved their tickets and were paying on the spot, another for walk-in customers who waited for the others to be seated before they could be admitted.
The lobby buzzed with excitement. The all-black plastic chairs were uniformly pegged at P500 each, including the ones that businessman Jaime Zobel and wife Bea sat on.


A winning combination

Although tickets and chairs were numbered, there were accidental duplications. The ushers diplomatically sorted these out. To reserve seats for concert companions who were still lined up outside, some parked hankies, bags, even the small four-page program printed on folded coupon bond paper.

Jeffrey Solares, MSO executive director, served as annotator for the evening, announcing that 10 more rush-hour concerts are lined up for the year. The next is “Soundtracks and Symphonies” on April 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Ayala Museum.

He noted that the audience’s size was, for the series, “unprecedented for the classics,” adding, “I know. Some of you came for The Beatles.”

The program was divided into three rounds like a boxing match, with Bach preceding The Beatles. Jeffrey gave informative tidbits before every round.

Jeffrey Solares, MSO's executive director and associate conductor

He told of how Johann Sebastian Bach composed a lot of church music, then tried to seek a job in the royal court. Failing at this attempt to improve his finances, he put his Brandenburg Concertos in a baul and didn’t hear it performed in his lifetime. When the box was opened and the music sheets discovered after his death, that was the beginning of the concertos’ acclaim. It continues to be performaned to this day.

Flutist Gaille Ramos in the number "Beatles in the style of Bach"

The baroque treatment given to the British quartet’s hit songs—“Eleanor Rigby,” “Yesterday,” “Blackbird,” “Lady Madonna,” “Michelle,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “I Will,” “Hey Jude” and a medley of “Got to Get You Into My Life,” “When I’m Sixty Four” and “Get Back”—proves how timeless they are. They can be thrown back by centuries to Bach’s period and given a fresh interpretation.
These arrangements/adaptations were made by Solares himself, David Johnstone, Peter Briener, Allison Krauss and David Garret.

The next day, the administrator of MSO’s Facebook page threw the gauntlet: “Who wants a ‪#‎BachVsBeatles‬ REMATCH?” The status received a lot of “Likes.”

Any flower child, even members of Generation Y, can identify the faces of the four men projected onscreen.

Meanwhile, Joseph Uy and Alan Andres of the Cultural Arts Events Organizers (CAEO) met up on March 27 with Hill Station’s Mitos Benitez and marketing consultant Vixienne Calulut on the possibility of beginning a classical music concert series in Baguio this summer.

Concertmeister and first violinist Gina Medina Perez has a solo part in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G-major

Given the many private music schools in the city and the fairly new music program and conservatory of the University of Baguio (UB), the summer capital could also be a cultural capital. Envisioned are summer music camps for students and teachers alike, all hinging on a gamble like a fine music series.

Present at the meeting were music aficionados Ben Tapang, a retired UP Baguio economics professor, and this blogger who both thought there was nothing wrong in indulging in wide-awake dreaming.

Supposedly to jumpstart the series, now named “Classics at the Hill," was Viva Voce, a group of classically trained singers under soprano Camille Lopez Molina. But they were unavailable because of a commitment to do Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury at the Cultural Center. Viva Voce, however, will do an abridged concert version of Puccini’s La Boheme on May 24 in another dinner concert at Hill Station.

As they were about to leave Baguio, Uy and Andres learned that the MSO was available on the weekend of April 24-26 for a possible concert and outreach activities to the northern city. Jeffrey’s dream was to give the musicians a much-needed break from their city routine of open technical rehearsals at different venues, performances and outreach concerts. The latest one was in Cavite with pianist Ingrid Sala Santamaria as soloist..

Mitos hesitated a bit when she considered the orchestra’s size, but was assured when she learned that “Bach Vs. Beatles” involved 20-25 MSO members rotating at any given time. Baguio woke up to news that Hill Station, housed in the city’s oldest building, would kick off its classical music series with a bang: a repeat of “Bach Vs. Beatles.”

The format is a buffet dinner on April 25 at the restaurant’s Justina Garcia function room downstairs at 6:30; the concert at 8:15 at the main dining hall upstairs.

Perla Macapinlac of the ICM House of Prayer with Al Andres and Joseph Uy of the Cultural Arts Events Organizers

The ICM House of Prayer under Sr. Perla Macapinlac and the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary (MES) under administrator Olive Gregorio are housing the MSO musicians, their instruments and crew. Choosing these open and spiritual spaces as shelter was deliberate on the organizing team’s part to give the MSO rest, recreation, retreat and renewal for more challenges in Manila. Hopefully, for the first-time Baguio visitors among the MSO members, the lushness of these spaces will enable them to appreciate the quiet activism of the religious community that enabled these open and green spaces to remain evergreen

Genesis Transport Services Inc., under its president Riza Moises and with help from its marketing officer Loren Zubia, offered two air-conditioned buses with wide luggage space below to transport 45 musicians and a crew of five to Baguio. UB, through its president JB Bautista and John Glen Gaerlan, UB Chorale adviser, is sending its instrument majors and teachers for the MSO’s morning masterclass on April 25 at Maryknoll and partially supporting the MSO’s board and lodgings.

Jeffrey had earlier voiced a desire for the MSO members to interact with Baguio's musicians.The Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation, the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) and Don Henrico's (Pizza Pasta and More) stepped in to also help make the season opener happen.

Ground support came from the Baguio Writers Group (the president is Jennifer Patricia A. Carino) in drafting and endorsing letters, organizing transport between venues, including a short city tour, looking for housing for visiting artists. The BWG is part beneficiary of what has become a community project. On May 18, the BWG together with the University of the Philippines Baguio will host "Aspulan: A Gathering of Literary Writers, Journalists, Teachers and Students of Literature." Conference convenor is Junley Lorenzana Lazaga, BWG vice president and UPB assistant professor.

The free masterclass follows the 10 a.m. matinee of “Soundtracks and Symphonies” at the MES’s courtyard this coming Saturday. The free half-popular, half-classical matinee is for the religious community, the staff and families of the retreat houses, the Baguio Writers Group members and families and interested cultural workers. Attendees are advised to RSVP with the MES at tel. no. (074)424-5745 or c.p. +63915-6555-745 because of limited seats or bring a portable chair, banig, umbrella or hat.

Who says Baguio has become a city of potholes this summer? The art community (writers, visual artists, musicians and art and music patrons) has always made the town a happening place. It still is in the summer of 2015 in spite of the simultaneous roadworks on major thoroughfares and small streets of the city, driving some commuters, residents and tourists alike, almost batty. There's always solace in the arts.

There's a universal force/source out there, too, that makes pipe dreams possible.

The driveway leading to the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Baguio and classical music: MSO serenades summer capital

Baguio and classical music: MSO serenades summer capital

MSO to reprise 1945 concert amid war ruins | Vera Files

MSO to reprise 1945 concert amid war ruins | Vera Files

No mistake

My good friend Pablo A. Tariman, who has covered the arts and music beat for several decades and doesn't look like he's slowing down (in fact, he has added the showbiz whirl of a world in his area of coverage/reportage), always likes to quote the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. "Without music, life would be a mistake"--this line is brought out in times of joy and disappointment to underline the importance of music in restoring his balance.

I, too, believe that one's life must have some kind of soundtrack playing. I can't write without music. Even if I don't have earphones and an iPhone with a shuffle list, something is playing in my head, especially when I'm caught in Metro Manila traffic or am particularly anxious about something. Music is my stabilizer; it is better and cheaper than doctor-prescribed tranquilizers.

He answers to both "Carlos!" and "Garch!", the marketing guy who's skilled in making the 89-year-old MSO highly visible in social media.

This brings me to Manila Symphony Orchestra's volunteer program where I found myself willingly recruited. Marketing director Carlos Garchitorena sent me a text if I wanted to volunteer for the orchestra's end-of-season concert, "The Late Romantics: Music by Strauss and Rachmaninov" at the Cultural Center Little Theater. Answer "Rachmaninov" if it's a yes; Strauss if it's a no. His come-on: free seating after the duties are done and a meal.

Pianist Aries Caces with his wife and baby Clara. I couldn't help saying the little one would grow up into another Clara Schumann, a pianist and composer also from the Romantic period.

Yes, I'm superficial sometimes (mababaw ang kaligayahan), but I'd do almost anything to hear Rachmaninov's Piano Concert No. 3 in D-mino, Op. 30 played live again, this time with Vienna-educated Aries Caces on the piano.

When early bird Nonon Padilla, the theater director, came for his reserved tickets, among my first words as a volunteer were if he could wait a bit as we still had to be briefed about our duties and the tickets were on their way. He thought I was pulling his leg when he learned I was an MSO volunteer.

Along with fellow volunteers Charm and Michael, I thought that staffing the ticket table and helping sell souvenir programs would be a breeze with the presence of Laura, the person in charge of the cash box (no box, just a long letter envelope). It turned out to be a sold-out show (standing room only wasn't allowed at the theater although there were those who were willing to stand during the two-hour performance). All's well that ends well. Garch was pleased how cool Charm, Michael and I remained despite some ticket buyers who demanded attention.

Benito Legarda (with the black bowtie) I found elegant in his outfit. Here he's chatting with Jeffrey Solares, MSO executive director. Maestro Solares is also a moving force behind the MSO Academy and the MSO Junior Orchestra, training ground for orchestra members of the future.

Up and coming pianist Gabby Paguirigan with Mr. Caces

One of Gabby's BFFs, Jan Briane Astrom (left), who knows more than a thing or two about the classics. I always look out for his recommended YouTube videos.

For a long-haired concert to be sold out--it means a job well done. Congratulations, Garch, Maestro Arturo Molina the conductor, the other MSO members (musicians, admin people, patrons). Let's not forget to acknowledge the classical music geeks like Jan Briane Fabie Astom, Adrian Lontoc, graduating piano major Gabby Paguirigan and groupies like this woman who's old enough to be their mom.

Garch flanks his three volunteers for the evening: the blogger, Charm and Michael. Until the next concert, guys!