A Scholastican’s passion for music and dance

Tomorrow, St. Scholastica’s College will celebrate its 100th anniversary by handing out a hundred awards (some posthumous) to a hundred outstanding alumnae.

Last Sunday, a thick volume "Daughters True: One Hundred Years of Scholastican Education" was launched. Excellently edited by Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, Paulynn Paredes Sicam, Karina Africa Bolasco and Ma. Ceres P. Doyo – who themselves have articles in the hook – "Daughters True" is not a cut-and-dried history of the college. Various human interest features, anecdotes culled from personal experiences, encounters and "confessions" make for fascinating reading and a collective description of how Scholastican education is uniquely special.

At Sunday’s launch, Mother Mary John Mananzan, OSB, prioress, and Sr. M. Angelica Leviste, OSB, president, gave the opening and concluding remarks, respectively. A brief musical featured an alumna singing (I’m sorry I missed her name) and a six-year-old violinist Jascha P. Obieta, pupil of Gilopez Kabayao playing (both performing to hearty applause), and the inimitably hilarious Mitch Valdes sending the audience – the nuns particularly! – rolling in the aisles. During her act, Mitch pointed to a corner of the hall, saying "That was where I smoked my first cigarette", and to another corner, confessing, "That’s where I drank my first bottle of beer."

To return to the book, a large portion is devoted to Sr. Baptista Battig who studied under Ludwig Deppe, Liszt’s last living pupil at the time. Sr. Battig introduced formal music education in the Philippines, and every note of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, et al can truly be traced back to her, making this fact arguably the greatest single contribution of St. Scholastica to the country.

Indirectly, I have felt Sr. Battig’s influence through her piano graduates under whom I studied. I owe those who read my columns (or who tell me they do) an explanation of how I gravitated to writing reviews or critiques. I shall therefore reprint my piece in "Daughters True" which appears with a photo of me in costume posing sur les pointes (on toes). Titled "A Passion for Music and Dance" my article follows:

Among the many benefits I received from St. Scholastica’s College, I shall always be profoundly grateful for the music training it gave me. It deepened my love for music that had been nurtured by my parents who, from the start, exposed me to classic music, e.g. opera records of coloratura soprano Galli Curci (singing the mad scene from Lucia), tenor Beniamino Gigli, baritone Lawrence Tibett and legendary tenor Enrico Caruso.

My love for music developed into a passion under my piano mentors Barbara Cuaycong, Blanca Castillo Dinglasan and Marcela Agoncillo – all graduates of Sr. Baptista Battig. Marcela Agoncillo asked one of her students, Luz Katigbak, to teach us, in addition, music history, music appreciation and Composition. Eugenia Agoncillo, older sister of Marcela, would later give me valuable pointers on music criticism when I started writing reviews.

(Incidentally, I have reviewed concerts of, among many others, Marian Anderson, America’s greatest contralto, pianist Rudolf Serkim, one of Cecile Licad’s mentors, Met tenor Jan Peerce, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky – all of whom performed at SSC’s St. Cecilia’s Hall.)

My passion for music was complemented by my passion for dance. This began with ballet lessons under my late sister Leonor, then a 19-year old graduate student in education at SSC. (Much later, she was to be named National Artist for Dance.) Leonor held ballet classes at St. Cecilia’s Hall, and in her two recitals at the same venue I danced as a geisha and as a Persian princess sur les pointes, and performed Mexican and Russian dances partnered by my late (non-Scholastican) brother Jose who was pressed into service without any previous dance training.

After the second recital, a classmate told me, "you are a thief." Perplexed, I asked her what she meant. "You stole the show!" she replied. The comment fanned my ambition to be a ballet dancer even more.

However, through high school, I was not only the youngest in class but also the shortest. As such, I consistently stood first in any line. Eventually, my lack of height doused my desire to be a ballerina. Dancing only demi caractere roles for being small, I would have been fluttering about as a tiny fairy or darting here and there as a dwarf.

To the above, I must add that courses in classic theater at the UP (Shakespeare, etc.) and contemporary theater at Harvard U. completed my background in the performing arts, buttressed by constant reading up on them.