MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra’s (PPO) 2008-2009 concert season ends with well-loved music by French composers slated on April 17, 8 p.m., at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (CCP Main Theater). The concert is in cooperation with Alliance Française de Manille with the support of the French Embassy and Cultures France.
Dubbed The French Connection, the concert features noted French conductor Michaël Cousteau and pianist Raul Sunico. The program includes Milhaud’s Suite Provençale, Op. 152b, Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103 “The Egyptian”, Fauré’s Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80 and Bizet’s L’Arlesienne Suites nos. 1 and 2.
Michaël Cousteau studied conducting in France and Austria with Jean-Sebastien Bereau, Julius Kalmar and Karl Osterreicher. In France, he is a regular conductor for the Lyon National Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Montpellier-Languedoc Rousseillon and the Nancy Symphonic and Lyric Orchestra. He also assisted well-known artists such as Zoltan Pesko at the Deustche Oper am Rheim (Düsseldorf Opera), Gary Bertini at the Paris National Opera and Emmanuel Krivine at the French National Youth Orchestra. In Europe, Cousteau has also conducted the Philharmonia di Roma (Italy), Savarian State Orchestra (Hungary), Radio Kamer Orkest and Radio Symfonie Orkest of the Dutch Radio and Philharmonic Orchestra of Luxembourg. A winner of Culturesfrance Programme “One conductor, one orchestra,” he conducted foreign orchestras such as Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of the Byelorussian Radio and Television and the National Byelorussian Philharmonic, the Russian Federation’s Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. He has accompanied great French soloists such as Nicholas Angelich, Dana Ciocarlie, Nicolas Dautricourt, David Grimal, among others.
Praised for his “unusual gifts of lyricism and poetry in his playing,” Raul Sunico earned international recognition as a concert pianist, orchestral soloist and composer-arranger of Philippine music. Sunico won several awards in international competitions such as the Viotti International Piano Competition and Busoni International Piano Competition, both in Italy, and is a recipient of the Henry Cowell Prize in the University of Maryland International Piano Competition. He also served as a jury member for the Bergen Philharmonic Competition in New Jersey, Piyabhand Sanitwongse Piano Competition in Bangkok, Thailand, the Manila Symphony Competition, among others. He was featured soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Transylvania Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), Towson Community Orchestra (USA), Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), and others. Sunico also recorded more than 30 CDs and cassettes including 13 volumes of Filipino folk songs and kundimans. On music education, Sunico wrote piano arrangements of Filipino folk songs in a five-volume series entitled Himig. He is also the music author of Music, Art & Physical Education and Musika at Sining 6, Department of Education-accredited textbooks used by private and public schools. A recipient of the TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men) award, Sunico graduated from the University of the Philippines with the degrees of Bachelor of Music (cum laude), Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Master of Statistics. Later, he earned his Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School of Music in New York and his Doctor of Philosophy degree, major in Piano Performance at New York University. He was also conferred a Doctor of Humanities degree, honoris causa, by the Far Eastern University in March 2006. Sunico is currently the Dean of the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music.
For information, call the CCP Marketing Department (832-1125 loc. 1806) or the CCP Box Office (832-3704) or Ticketworld at National Bookstore (891-9999).