Gawad CCP Para sa Sining/The Coyiutos: An update/Medel to audition abroad

We close the year with the official announcement that seven individuals — two posthumously — and an organization will receive on Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining for their outstanding achievements and contributions to Philippine arts and culture.

The Gawad CCP Para sa Sining is the highest award given by the CCP. This year, the award will be conferred on Zeneida A. Amador for Theater; Cirilo F. Bautista for Literature; Brenda V. Fajardo for Visual Arts; Agnes D. Locsin for Dance, Ramon P. Santos for Music; Rodolfo “Dolphy” Quizon for Film and Broadcast Arts; Florentino H. Hornedo for Cultural Research. The Silliman University National Writers Workshop will receive the Tanging Parangal for the development of creative writing and the literary arts.

The late Zeneida Amador was a theater director and actress whose career spanned 45 years. Her name is synonymous with Repertory Philippines, the theater company dedicated to bringing Broadway and West End productions. As the driving force behind Repertory Philippines and with a passion for excellence, Amador succeeded in honing a generation of theater actors disciplined and dedicated to their craft as well as building an enthusiastic and loyal theater audience.

Poet, fictionist and critic Cirilo Bautista is a preeminent voice in Philippine Literature in English and Filipino. He is the author of the Trilogy of Saint Lazarus composed of the award-winning poetry collections (Archipelago, Telex Moon and Sunlight on Broken Stones). He has won all the important literary awards and he continues to write criticism as well as literary reviews and essays in Panorama where he serves as literary editor. Having been a lecturer and critic in literary workshops in various universities, he has mentored many young writers.

Visual artist Brenda Fajardo’s works carry strong historical and nationalist themes as folk and mythological tales. Fajardo participated in prestigious exhibitions both here and abroad and represented the country in various biennales notably in France, Cuba, Japan, the USA, Korea, Chile, India and Australia. Because Fajardo was not an artist contented with isolation, she explored her expression with other art organizations and institutions. She has been instrumental in founding or revitalizing artist groups bonded by a common advocacy such as art education, gender issues, and community enrichment programs. Her efforts at revitalizing her family’s farm through cultural awareness prove to be a further testimony to this vocation.

Choreographer, dancer and teacher Agnes Locsin is one of the most progressive contemporary choreographers in the Philippines. Her neo-ethnic choreographies derive inspiration on Filipino tribal practices, beliefs, more, folklores and rituals which gave a new voice to our ethnic traditions. Her body of works enriched Philippine dance’s treasure of original Filipino works. As a teacher, she has produced outstanding dancers that have become members of leading dance companies abroad.

The Coyiutos: An update

Cristine Coyiuto, one of the country’s leading concert pianists whom I have described as “the pianists’ pianist,” will render the Khatchaturian Concerto with the MCCO on March 10, 2013.

Cristine has given several duo concerts with her brilliant flutist daughter Caitlin who is now doing excellent work at Wellesley College. She has been invited to join the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra as first flutist by its conductor.

Caitlin’s phenomenal progress continues with private lessons under Linda Toote of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

A concert, then auditions abroad

Sixteen-year-old piano prodigy Lorenzo B. Medel, whom I have described as a virtuoso-in-the-making, will give a concert on Jan. 12, 2013, 7:30 p.m. at the Philamlife Theater. His piece de resistance will be Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor to be assisted by the Manila Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Molina. The concert is a “send-off” as Lorenzo is leaving in February for auditions in any of the following prestigious US institutions: Juilliard, Curtis, Eastman, NEC, Oberlin, etc.

Lorenzo’s formidable program on Jan. 12 follows: Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B Major, Beethoven’s Sonata in F Minor (the “Appassionata”), Abelardo’s First Nocturne, Chopin’s Prelude No. 11 in A Minor (“Winter Wind”), Liszt-Paganini Etude No. 6, Debussy’s Feux d’Artifice (“Fireworks”), Bartok’s Two Rumanian Dances, climaxed by the Rachmaninoff Concerto.