Meet the Asian Troubadors

CEBU, Philippines - “We try to reinvent the music. We’d like to promote Visayan music. The people in the city, they don’t really listen to it, only the people from the barrio or the promdi’s and you can understand why. It’s nice music but the way it’s played is somewhat not classy. People often play it like a joke or comedy act. So we thought what if we get that music, play it like it’s world-class music and maybe people will perceive it differently, and they do.” – Wilson Ng, founder of the Asian Troubadors.

A trip to Russia last year left a lasting impression on Cebuano businessman Wilson Ng. The arts-and-culture-rich country reinvigorated a childhood interest in music that he had long set aside as his time was mostly dedicated to entrepreneurial pursuits.

The tech entrepreneur, who owns NGenius/NG Khai, shares that in Russia, a tour guide, after a long day’s work would catch a ballet show; a waiter would put on his Sunday’s best after a shift to watch an opera—a way of life that would weird out ordinary Filipinos who’d rather watch the latest flick on cinemas or hang out at a mall to people-watch.

“They place a lot of importance in their arts and culture. For them, it is part of their lives. And also last year, I attended a lot of the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo and there were a lot of cultural presentations so that revived my interest in arts, culture, music and dance,” he says.

Wilson learned the piano at nine, became a school pianist in high school, then stopped at 18. When he was back in Cebu, he decided to study the piano again. “I thought it would be more interesting to play with a group so I called a couple of friends, then we decided to form a group because it’s much more fun playing with friends.”

And so, Asian Troubadors was born.

It has four founding members, namely, Hazel Sanchez and Hannah Go of Asian Academy of Music, Nendel Endrina and Wilson. Now, it is a seven-piece orchestral band known for playing classical Visayan, Philippine folk, Classical, Broadway and Pop Music, all rendered and played in their distinctly entertaining, upbeat arrangements. 

The young Endrina, according to Wilson, is responsible for the upbeat arrangements. He wrote the official theme song of the Cebu Province’s 440th anniversary, “Cebu 440 Overture” and has also arranged final entries for the annual Cebu Pop Music Festival.

The rest of the members include: Clifford Remolador on bass guitar, Osbourne Cafe on drums, Jake Gacang on violin, Sheila Tapispisan on flute and Christian Abais plays the clarinet. All of them have years of experience in music training and performances and use top of the line instruments.

Asian Troubadors also released an eleven-track CD, “Timeless Visayan and Russian Classics”, which is a compilation of the songs that they play, and is a mix of various repertoire from classical to pop to folk songs to original compositions. The tracks included in the debut sampler are: “The Prayer,” “Canon in D,” “Tears in Heaven,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and “Cebu 440 Overture,” among others.

It also includes the quartet’s own version of Nitoy Gonzales Angus’ “Usahay”, the only Cebuano piece in this album.

Since they were formed, they have been performing in numerous events such as weddings, conventions and openings. One of their recent performances was during the Miss Cebu 2010 coronation night, providing beautiful Visayan folk music, which was apt for the pageant’s theme of “My City, My Heritage”. But Wilson says that although they are grateful for the opportunity in showcasing their music in these events, they wanted to perform in a venue where the people’s sole purpose was to watch and listen to them.

“When we play weddings and conventions, people are busy eating or socializing, we just kind of serve as the background music. No one cares if we make mistakes,” he says. “The reason we wanted to perform in a theater, we want people to watch us. They are there mainly to watch and listen to you. Not to eat. We are in a place where we have the full attention of the audience.”

So last November, they held “Passionata – A Cultural Heritage Celebration” together with world-class performers, the Cebu Chamber Singers and Mandaue Children’s Choir at the SM City Cebu Cinema. The Cebu Chamber Singers is a gold awardee in the Busan International Choral Competition in South Korea, and the Asian Choir Games in Jakarta; while the Mandaue Children’s Choir won gold in the Children’s Choir category of the Grand Prix of Choral Music at the 1st World Choir Championships in South Korea and the first prize in the 2004 National Music Competition for Young Artists.

The Asian Troubadours played “Bahay Kubo,” “Sitsiritsit,” “Cebu 440 Overture,” “Si Filemon,” “Baleleng,” “Matud Nila” and “Pasayawa Ko Day.” It was then followed with masterpieces from different parts of the world, and an interpretation of two of the best and classic compositions by Handel and Beethoven, respectively, Hallelujah Chorus and Ode to Joy also known as Symphony #9.

“We try to reinvent the music. We’d like to promote Visayan music. The people in the city, they don’t really listen to it, only the people from the barrio or the promdis and you can understand why. It’s nice music but the way it’s played is somewhat not classy. People often play it like a joke or comedy act. So we thought what if we get that music, play it like it’s world-class music and maybe people will perceive it differently, and they do,” Wilson says.

Almost everyone gave them wonderful feedback, shares Wilson, since everything was live (no prerecording or minus one), it was all 100% Cebu talent, and there was only one American song among the 22. It was mostly Philippine, Asian and European music.

Because of the encouragement they got from all quarters, Passionata had a repeat performance last January 16 at the Cinema 1 of SM City Cebu. The show was for the benefit of the Cebu City Task Force on Street Children. Musical directors were Ariel Perez and Dennis Sugarol, arrangements by Nendel Endrina and Jake Gacang, and it was executive-produced by Wilson.