Mommy, I want to be a singer/doctor/ballerina/actor/pianist.” It’s laudable how mothers can shape their children’s dreams into reality. I remember Liaa, my first daughter, telling me at seven years old: “I want to be a doctor.” And she became a pediatrician. I didn’t bring her up buying her kid-size medical white jackets, but I did get her stethoscopes. Cooking sets too, but my second daughter enjoyed those more. Going back to Liaa, I can’t be considered the mom who honed her daughter to become a doctor because I dreaded doctor’s clinical reports and emergency rooms — was scared even of small wounds on my children’s knees, forehead or chin — unlike Liaa who brought her sister to the emergency room when they fell. When China’s ear had to be stitched after her earrings got caught in her playpen, Liaa was the one who brought her for stitching.
Therefore, I admire doting parents who mold their children to what they are now — like Mrs. Salonga, Leah’s mom, who accompanied Leah to numerous auditions and chartered her career from stage appearances and choice of plays to singing lesson; or Regine Velasquez, Asia’s Songbird, whose dad soaked her head in water to teach her how to hold her breath and carry a note “forever”; or Liza Macuja’s mom, watching her daughter dance ballet at every performance, whatever country Liza was training in, longing for a daughter’s glory. And, of course, Sylvia Ilusorio, for encouraging her daughter Mariel from age seven to study music at the University of Santo Tomas under Professor Marietta Baja. Mariel also spent four years training with Filipino piano pedagogue Stella Goldenberg Brimo. Since age 15, and throughout her musical education, she received full scholarships and grants, which took her to Juilliard School in New York. That saved Mommy Sylvia a lot of dollars.
Mariel won several national and international competitions, including first prize in the 1985 National Music Competitions for Young Artists, playing a Yamaha full grand. In 1990, Mariel received her pre-college diploma from the prestigious Juilliard as one of the 10 outstanding seniors upon graduation. During this time, Mariel garnered several prizes, including first prize in the Juilliard Pre-College Mozart Piano Concerto Competition and the Therese Kleppel Piano Prize. In 1994, Mariel earned her bachelor’s degree in music and piano from Ohio’s Oberlin Conservatory, one of the foremost American conservatories. At Oberlin, she also won a full scholarship to the Aspen Summer Music Festival as first prize winner of the Des Moines Symphony Competition; first prize in the Oberlin Conservatory Concerto Competition; the John Elvin Junior Prize; the Annette B. Kaufman Chamber Music Prize; and she was elected member of the Phi Kappa Lambda of the US National Music Honor Society.
In 1995, Mariel moved to Germany to study with the eminent pianist-professor Arie Vardie at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Hanover. She eventually received the highest performance degree in piano, the Diploma Soloklasse, using a Steinway full grand in Germany. In 1996, she won the special prize in the 14th Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Monza, Italy. In 1998, she received a master’s degree with the highest grade, or Kuenstlerische Ausbildung.
Mariel Ilusorio’s musical career has taken her to four continents. During one of Mariel’s outreach lectures in Cape Town, South Africa she met Juan Luis Munoz, an acclaimed Chilean violinist and conductor. Who would ever know a groom would come into Mariel’s life? I have this firm belief that because we move in selected circles, we end up marrying within those enclosed curves. Mariel married a musician; the children of army and police officers marry into their own ranks; the high society marries within their enclave. It’s the strong affiliations that bind societies and personalities from daily contact with the same strata introducing themselves to one another.
Juan was born in Santiago, Chile, and plays a very active role in South Africa’s musical life. As concertmaster of the University of Santiago Symphony Orchestra and as a soloist, he toured Chile, Argentina and Peru being concertmaster of the Mineduc Orchestra. He has performed numerous concerts with his violin in Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Johannesburg Music Initiative, Free State Symphony Orchestra, the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, and as the conductor/founder of the Cape Town Baroque Ensemble.
Juan also coaches and conducts with the Franschhoek Mountain Chamber Music Festival, one of the most important annual events in South Africa with his Noebe German-made violin.
So, since 2005, Mariel has been based in South Africa with Juan, making sweet music together, with their one-year-old daughter Anita. Mariel performs solo on the piano with Juan and other South African musicians in various music societies, festivals and universities. She and Juan have started their own chamber music series at Rhodes University, where Juan teaches violin and chamber music — an ensemble called “Juan, Mariel and Friends.”
This year, Mariel organized the Rising Stars Series, including the Rising Stars Competition, the First Grahamstown Music Competition for Youth.
Yet Mariel, being so involved, even right after she completed her studies in the US and Germany and in between her competitions in France, Spain and Germany, and at present in South Africa, has never forgotten her Filipino roots and her strong motivation to help those in need. She returns to the Philippines regularly for outreach tours, master classes and to perform for charity. This time, with a partner in life and music.
On Nov. 29, The Battig Music Foundation of St. Scholastica’s College, Mariel’s mother’s alma mater, will present Mariel and Juan in concert with the Manila Symphony Orchestra. They will perform a program including their favorite Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the Manila Symphony Orchestra at the St. Cecilia’s Hall, St. Scholastica’s College, Manila for the benefit of Filipino music scholars. The Battig Foundation is fortunate to have the combined talents of this gifted musical pair, piano and violin — a unique union of different backgrounds and influences, producing an exciting artistic combination for the benefit of charity in the project named “Mariel y Juan.”