Michael Cu opens 13th MMCO concert season

MANILA, Philippines - With a focus on emerging young Filipino artists of the classical concert arena, the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra Foundation, with the support of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Prudential Guarantee, BDO, Bosendorfer, Air 21, Lettered L, Miriam College and The STAR, will launch the 13th MMCO season, with Josefino Chino Toledo conducting, on Friday, Jan. 25, at the Francisco Santiago Hall, BDO at 7:30 p.m.

Themed as “Emergence II,” the season opener will premiere the MMCO Music Underkonstruction Orchestra VII Reading Project presenting new works for orchestra and piano titled Abo by Kabaitan Bautista, Araw-Araw by Michael Bulaong, Disymphonization by Ireneo Orio III, and A Sketch for Orchestra and Piano by Robert Sarreal. 

A highlight of the concert will be the performance of Belgium-based Filipino pianist, Michael Cu, who will be performing the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Chopin.

After completing his Master’s diploma with distinction in the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels under the guidance of Prof. Daniel Blumenthal, 24-year old pianist Michael Lao Cu is currently preparing for a doctorate in the arts on “Understanding Filipino Piano Music through the study of Indigenous Artistic Traditions in the context of Western Aesthetic Principles,” an extensive artistic project raising international awareness and accessibility towards Filipino classical music through concerts, lectures, written publications, CD recordings and a new edition of selected pieces for solo piano.

Previously, Cu was mentored by the world-renowned pianist and pedagogue Reynaldo Reyes, under a scholarship in Towson University, Maryland USA where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance, summa cum laude. His past teachers include Boris Slutsky in the Peabody Conservatory, Ruby Salvosa in the Miriam Center for Applied Music and the late Asuncion Laureola from the University of the Philippines. Cu received training from pianists Klaus Hellwig (Universitat der Kunste Berlin), Alexei Lubimov (Mozarteum Salzburg) and Edmund Battersby (Indiana University), as well as chamber music masterclasses from Viviane Spanoghe, Eva Mengelkoch, Cecylia Barczyk and ZoltanSzabo.

During his studies, Cu was a recipient of numerous grants and awards for academic achievement and artistic performance. He was a laureate of several local and international competitions, including the Piano Exellentia 2010 in Linkebeek, the 2009 Alexandria Symphony Orchestra  Concerto Competition, the 22nd International Young Artist Piano Competition and the National Music Competition for Young Artists. Furthermore, while in America he won every single first prize possible in the university’s music department, including the Presser Scholarship, an honor given to only one student each year in the Fine Arts.

In 2008 his solo recital at the US Department of State in Washington DC was very well received by the press, and in 2009 he debuted in Manila with the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra and Maestro Josefino Toledo performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G and Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.

Most recently, his back-to-back performances of Filipino and Western classical music in Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts and the Philharmonie Luxembourg received several standing ovations, and praised by critics as “world-class.”

Tickets and reservations may be placed at the MMCO office at 580-5400 ext. 3573.