CHS marks centennial / Lisa interviews artists

The College of the Holy Spirit marked its centennial with a concert at the Paraclete Auditorium.

Through the years, faculty members have included Jovita Fuentes, the earliest diva to make a name abroad while singing Madama Butterfly in Italy; Marcela Agoncillo (one of my own piano teachers); mentors Amanda Cabrera, Dolores Herras and Rosario Picazo, former teacher of Cecile Licad, and choral conductor Liwanag Cruz.

Leonor Orosa Goquingco, National Artist for Creative Dance — she revolutionized our folk dances — spent some years as a student in what was then Holy Ghost College.

The centennial concert featured, in chronological order, marimbist Dena Fernandez and assisting artist Lourdes de Leon Gregorio; Sr. Guadalupe de Leon, pianist, flutist Raymundo O. Sison with Ingrid Santamaria as assisting artist; pianists Santamaria and Jonathan Coo.

Dena’s numbers were the first movement of Bach’s Concerto No. 4, Saint Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capricioso, C. de los Reyes’ Harana and Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs. The marimba’s tonal colors and sonorities are totally distinct from those of the piano, and Dena projected the characteristic qualities of her instrument with admirable skill and expressiveness. The Rondo Capricioso and Gypsy Airs were marvelous in their profound and moving lyricism, the rapid passages were brisk and sparkling. Dena’s swiftly “traveling” hands from one end of her instrument to the other seemed faster than the eye could follow.

Lourdes and Dena were one in mind, heart and spirit, their rapport being of the keenest and closest.

Off-hand, I know of no other marimba player than Dena who has obviously mastered her instrument.

Sr. Guadalupe paid “tribute to the Holy Triune God” by playing a relatively simple, lyrical piano piece in a most engaging and appealing manner.

The Santamaria-Sison duo, now fairly established, began with Mozart’s Sonata No. 19 in C Major wherein the flutist sounded rather vapid. The opera Carmen is thoroughly familiar to audiences, and in the Bizet-Borne Fantasie Brillante on themes from Carmen, Sison matched the diverse and daunting variations with considerable agility, fluidity and flair. Flourish and dash marked Santamaria’s accompaniment, the duo ending with brio and bravura.

The program was climaxed by Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Santamaria assuming the soloist’s role; Coo the orchestra’s. Santamaria has performed this Concerto so often — in provincial sorties with Reynaldo Reyes and in assorted gala programs — she now plays the formidable work to near perfection, projecting more power and luminousity, and subtler nuances.

Coo, for his part, was brilliant, his chords thunderous and sonorous, his lyricism deeply sensitive. The duo gave a fittingly impressive finale to the centennial celebration.

There were printed messages from Charo Santos-Concio, president of the CHS Alumnae Association, and from Sr. Eden Panganiban, as well as bouquets and leis for the participants at concert’s end, with the sisters looking forward to the next hundred years!

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Art 2 Art, produced by the Manila Broadcasting Company, the 2009 CMMA Awardee for its educational program, will have host Lisa Macuja interviewing Tony Joaquin, nephew of National Artist and literary icon Nick Joaquin, author of novels, poems, short stories, essays and film reviews. The interview is on Jan. 31, 3:30 to 4 p.m. over DZRH.

On Jan 24, the subject will be theater artist Shamaine Centenera, also a TV and movie personality. She is a UP cum laude graduate in theater arts.

On Jan. 17, Lisa will chat with Gabe Mercado and Kenneth Keng, artistic director and member, respectively, of SPIT (Silly People’s Improvisatory Theater). An on-the-spot hilarious skit will be on a topic provided by Lisa.

Earlier, Jan. 10, Lisa interviewed Pablo S. Gomez, the last of the great komiks writers who included Clodualdo del Mundo Sr., Francisco Coching, Mars Ravelo and Tony Velasquez.

The interviews began with multi-awarded writer Alfredo “Krip” Yuson.