Coyiuto, Licuanan & Santa Isabel Choir in MMCO gala concert

MANILA, Philippines - The Institute for Orchestral Development in the Philippines with Miriam College, Lyric Piano, Ayala Westgrove Heights and The Philippine STAR launch the ninth Metro Manila Community Orchestra (MMCO) concert season with “Fantasie” on Sept. 26, Saturday, 7 p.m. at Miriam College’s newly-renovated Marian Auditorium.

The concert program features the orchestra-in-residence of Miriam College, the MMCO, with pianist Cristine Coyiuto, the Santa Isabel Music Guild, and Miriam College president Dr. Patricia Licuanan as reader.   

Performing with the MMCO on the grandiose and festive Beethoven Choral Fantasy for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra is Cristine Coyiuto who is acclaimed by critics as the “pianists’ pianist” and “poetess of the piano.”

Coyiuto is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York where she received her master of music degree with high honors. Mentored in Europe by renowned pianists as Fou Ts’ong, Philippe Entremont, Gaby Casadesus and Nikita Maagaloff, Coyiuto was a lauréate of the Académie Internationale de Musique “Maurice Ravel” in St. Jean-de-Luz, France and Genève Conservatoire in Switzerland.

Performing National Artist Lucio San Pedro’s composition of Sa Mahal Kong Bayan for chorus and orchestra, and sharing the concert stage with Coyiuto is the Santa Isabel Music Guild, a 40-piece choral group led by Raul Navarro, associate professor and chair of the conducting and choral ensemble department of the University of the Philippines College of Music and music director of the Vox Children’s Choir when it emerged champion in the Children’s Choir Category of the 2008 Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choir Festival.

The Santa Isabel Music Guild is composed of serious music students of Santa Isabel College who have taken up the mission of bringing choral music to various parts of the Philippines. 

With freedom as the underlying theme of the concert, Miriam College president Patricia B. Licuanan takes center-stage as she narrates the inspiring messages of Abraham Lincoln which still resonates today in one of Aaron Copland’s most beloved and widely performed works, Lincoln Portrait

Capping the program is Finlandia, a symphonic poem by Sibelius evoking the national struggle of the Finnish people.

Anchoring the program is the MMCO led by its music director and conductor Josefino Chino Toledo who is the recipient of the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship Award in Italy; ASCAP-Raymund Hubbel Award in Composition; and the Chancellor Award for Outstanding Musical Works from the University of the Philippines.

For ticket reservations and inquiries, call the Miriam College Music Center at 426-1822 and 5805400 local 3580.