24 hands, 240 fingers

If too many cooks spoil the broth, will too many hands on the piano spoil the music?

Let your ear be the judge when the Cultural Center of the Philippines puts twelve of the country’s leading piano masters together on one grand stage. Add the country’s two leading orchestras, a vocal diva, the Philippines’ top cellist, and outstanding ballet dancers and you have what is potentially the musical event of the year.

On March 3, all 24 expert hands and 240 deft fingers of Nena del Rosario Villanueva, Raul Sunico, Ryan Cayabyab, Della Besa, Annie de Guzman, Manuel Maramba, Mary Anne Espina, Greg Zuniega, Ina Montesclaros, Najib Ismail, Peter Porticos and Rudolf Golez will caress, stroke and pound the keys of twelve grand pianos–one Bosendorfer, five Steinways, and six Yamahas–in an exciting program of popular classical and Filipino masterpieces.

And what made these artists agree to perform together is not the fact that VIRTUOSOS, A Wealth of Piano Masters is going to be CCP’s major musical and social event for 2006, but the Arts for the People program which the benefit concert is for.

"The Arts for the People program has been one of the flagship programs of the CCP since 2001. It brings and makes the arts accessible to all sectors of Philippine society throughout the country," says Emily A. Abrera, chair of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. "We’ve made considerable headway in achieving our goals but of course there are never enough funds to expand this program further."

The Arts for the People program includes several projects which have had considerable impact among its target audiences and beneficiaries. Sining sa Eskwela (Arts in Education) is a training project for art teachers in sixteen of the country’s regional high schools, including Muhammad Tulawie in Jolo, Sulu and Eugenio Daza in Borongan, Eastern Samar.

Sining at Paglikha (Arts and Creation), which is conducted in cultural communities all over the country, aims to promote traditional arts and crafts among the youth. The project has been implemented among the Mangyans in Mindoro and the Ivatans in Batanes. The national touring projects bring outstanding regional and Manila-based performing arts groups to the regions.

Fernando C. Josef, CCP Vice-President and Artistic Director, is particularly enthusiastic about the arts therapy workshops that the CCP has been organizing in the regions in cooperation with UNICEF. "The workshop utilizes the arts as a medium for therapy and healing for children affected or traumatized by armed conflicts or natural calamities. We’ve conducted these workshops in Quezon Province after the floods in 2004, and in conflict areas like Northern and Eastern Samar, Isabela and Jolo last year. The sessions have been an emotional experience for us as well, and indeed, they affirm the fact that the arts are effective means of expressing one’s feelings no matter what age one is," he explains.

The CCP undertakes one major fundraising event every two years for the benefit of the Arts for the People program. In 2002, it presented the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with celebrated piano virtuoso Lang Lang in cooperation with Citibank. In 2004, it was the Ginintuang Moreno gala fashion show in cooperation with the Gawad Kalinga Foundation.

This year it will be VIRTUOSOS in partnership with BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank and a major supporter of the arts all over the world.

"We’re very happy and privileged to be the partner of the CCP in this year’s benefit concert," Claude Haberer, CEO of BNP Paribas Private Bank for North Asia and the Philippines, told STARweek in a phone interview from Hong Kong. "I’ve seen many events at the CCP in the past and I am impressed by its commitment to its programs and its audiences. I think the CCP is deserving of the support of the business sector and I wish more local companies would take it upon themselves to help promote the arts and Filipino artists as a form of corporate responsibility to the public and community they benefit from."

For its part the CCP has designed a gala program that promises to be a unique and unforgettable concert of best loved classical and Filipino music, from from Felipe Buencamino’s "Mayon Fantasy" to Piazolla’s "Le Grand Tango", Mozart’s "Allegro from Concerto in E flat Major" to Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue".

Lending support to the twelve pianists are the country’s two leading orchestras, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra as well as noted cellist Renato Lucas, and artists from Ballet Philippines. Maestro Eugene Castillo is the musical director and conductor for the concert.

Conceptualizing the concert and choosing the repertoire pieces have not been an easy task for the artistic staff composed of Castillo, CCP Music Division chief Menchi Mantaring and stage director Monino Duque.

"We wanted a program of popular classical pieces together with Filipino music that would showcase the virtuosity of the pianists. The challenge was keeping the program under two hours because there were so many beautiful pieces proposed by the pianists to choose from," Duque reveals. "The other challenge was how to fit two symphony orchestras and twelve grand pianos on stage for the finale!"

What remains the biggest challenge is to raise enough funds to sustain the Arts for the People program. With insufficient subsidy from the government and diminishing financial support from the business sector, it is hoped that the general public will rally to the cause and add their helping hands to those of these twelve piano masters in bringing arts to the people all over the Philippines.

Tickets for VIRTUOSOS are available at the CCP Box Office (tel 832-3704) and Ticketworld outlets at National Bookstore (tel 891-9999).