Gerry de Leon's passion for Kundiman

This was our second time to trek northward to Conspiracy Bar on Visayas Ave. to listen to The Filipino Tenors sing Kundiman melodies. In the footsteps of the original Three Tenors of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, and the mainstream Il Divo, these five young men trained in the classical tradition have embraced the music genre that is uniquely our own, the Kundiman.  

During the album launch for the group, there was again in the audience this self-effacing gentleman paying tribute to the Tenors with his presence. He is the composer of the group, and we happened to sit beside him, found out he was Gerry de Leon, a name he shares with the esteemed Manong Gerry, who has been dubbed as arguably the country’s best film director. 

The Kundiman is the Filipino bardic poem, our love song in great need of preservation and revival. The enthusiasm seemed to be out there as the bistro was buzzing with appreciation and flowing with cocktails. Once, they were treated to the presence of Dulce, Bo Cerrudo and Sherwin Sioson, all renowned singers.

Inside the album cover we read the acknowledgment of Gerry and later discover that he had given three out of the four songs on this debut album for free. We ask Gerry why.

 Gerry lives in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, hometown of Francisco Santiago, who with Nicanor Abelardo in the early 1900s brought kundiman music to the Conservatory, thereby elevating the genre into an art form recognized by the country’s artistic elite. He credits this geographic similitude for his interest.

A businessman by day and a songwriter by night, Gerry quips, “It’s just a hobby,” but a hobby he pursued with passion when working with a church choir he decided to take a crash course in music theory to be able to work on their arrangements. This was in 1986, and after the course he began to write songs. Gerry doesn’t know quite how many songs he has written but “I keep them,” he assures, “safely on my hard drive.”

One day, Gerry met one of the Filipino Tenors, during the composer competition for the banner song for UST’s 400 years which he won. He was told the Tenors needed original material to work with. He reached into the depths of his music archives, came back with five songs from which the young men chose three: Isang Kundiman, Nanay, Kailangan Ko’y Pag-ibig. “Nobody had ever recorded my songs,” Gerry recalls. In fact, some of these songs are decades old. “I guess I was waiting for the right singer because nobody sings these kind of songs today.”

His song Isang Kundiman  had won the Gawad Ka Amado in the literary contest called Pambansang Patimpalak Pampanitikan in 2005. “The UP choir used it on their US tour. It was a hit with the Filipinos there, they were really crying…” Isang Kundiman is also our personal favorite. Its lyrics strike at the very core of an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) longing for his homeland, land of the kundiman.    

His song Nanay is another moving song the Tenors interpreted with fantastic depth. Gerry originally composed Nanay for his mother’s 80th birthday in 2005, deciding midway to write it for all mothers. “I posted it on YouTube,” he tells us, “and received requests from strangers seeking permission to use the song for their mothers.” The third composition, Kailangan Ko’y Pag-ibig, is the oldest of this set written in the early ’80s — Gerry no longer remembers exactly when. He jokes, “I wrote it when Kuh Ledesma was at the height of her career, but the song never made it to her. So, I kept it for another singer.”

A quarter of a century later, with the Tenors at Conspiracy Bar, Gerry finally realizes this dream. “After hearing them perform my three songs, I’m inspired to do more. I have finally found the singers for my type of song.” The Filipino Tenors are Miguel Castro, Jenmar Buntalilid, David Ezra Cruz, Christian Nagano and Johann Enriquez.

At Sta. Maria, Bulacan, Gerry is music director for Pamanang Kundiman, a music program aimed at keeping kundiman alive by teaching appreciation to children.

Sylvia Joachim, a director at Pamana, tells us the program works with seven Kundiman Kids, ages eight to 15 chosen through auditions. They are Ria, Trixie, Fatima, Bryan, Apple, Chelsie and Rainiel. The response has been amazing. “When you hear the young people sing Kundiman, you never want to hear anyone else sing it,” Sylvia shares.

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