Music From A Thousand Strings

"If music be the food of love, play on." The Cultural Center of the Philippines is taking William Shakespeare’s admonition to heart, helping the country’s musicians play on with passion and artistry. On March 9, 2007, the country’s leading string instrumentalists and two superb foreign artists will come together with three orchestras and a rondalla to celebrate music in a concert dubbed "Virtuoso Strings."

One of the goals of "Virtuoso Strings" is to showcase the talents of some of the country’s most accomplished string instrumentalists, many of them celebrated soloists not only here but internationally. Among them are cellist Renato Lucas and violinist Coke Bolipata.

The concert is a grand production featuring a 120-piece orchestra made up of members from different groups, as well as performances by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), the Metro Manila Community Orchestra, and the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Symphony Orchestra, plus the UST Guitar Ensemble and the Cainta Los Trobadores Rondalla. Guest soloists, violinist Angelo Bard and guitarist Thibault Cauvin, complete the cast of talented string players.

Echoing the passion of all the musicians involved in the project, Angelo Bard says, "It’s such a great opportunity to have a ‘job’ which makes you happy and which is the thing that you really want to do. Being able to communicate with the audience and showing them what you want to express is one of the best feelings."

Angelo, 27, was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Germany, assistant concert master of the European Union Youth Orchestra and, since 2005, has been playing with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Playing the violin has brought him all over the world. "Every audience is very different," he says, "how they react, how they cheer."

He has, in fact, been to the Philippines before. "It’s really interesting," he says of the Philippine music scene. "It’s of course quite different from Germany and Europe. I really liked the Filipino songs like Lagi Kitang Naaalala," he says, tripping over the Tagalog title. "Such a hard word!"

Angelo enthuses about Filipino musicians. "When I performed two years ago with the PPO, it made me happy when I saw how open the orchestra had been and one could feel that they really enjoyed playing the music! I am looking forward to March as I will play with Filipino violinist Coke Bolipata Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins. That’s going to be exciting!"

Exciting indeed is this first team up between Angelo and Coke, who started to play the violin at the age of eight and won first prize in the National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA) when he was 12. He went on to finish his studies in music at the Julliard School in New York. Since then, he has received numerous awards, such as the NCCA Alab ng Haraya Award and the 2002 Gawad ng Maynila Award. Like Bard, music has taken Coke around the world with performances in major music halls. He has made sure, though, to always return to his roots, founding the Casa San Miguel in Zambales, an arts center that mentors young children gifted in music, visual and performing arts.

In the same spirit of passing on a passion for music, cellist Renato Lucas teaches cello, chamber music, music history and music literature at the UST and is the conductor of the UST Symphony Orchestra. A recognized figure in the Philippine music scene, he won first prize in both the NAMCYA and the Chamber Music Composition Contest in 1978. He then went on to study at the San Francisco Conservatory where he became the principal cellist of its youth orchestra. He later represented the Philippines in the first World Cello Congress. In "Virtuoso Strings," Lucas shows his musical prowess in Song of the Birds, a piece for unaccompanied cello.

Other numbers in the eclectic program include Danza Paraguaya by Barrios Mangore for the 30-piece UST Guitar Ensemble, Spring from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons performed by the Cainta Los Trobadores Rondalla, Cantilena from Bachianas Brasileiras for eight cellos and soprano Rachelle Gerodias, a performance by Ballet Philippines, and Concerto in D Major by Mario Tedesco to be performed by French guitarist, Thibault Cauvin.

Cauvin, hailed as one of the most gifted guitarists of his generation, started playing the guitar when he was six years old and was guided by his father, guitarist and composer Philippe Cauvin. At the young age of 23, he has already won 13 prestigious international first prizes, including the San Francisco International Classical Guitar Competition. "Virtuoso Strings" aims to raise P3 million for the CCP’s Arts for the People program which helps create awareness of and appreciation for the arts throughout the country, particularly in the regions. This year’s programs will focus on arts education, as well as the development of the creative industries in the regions.

"Never lose confidence," Angelo advises aspiring musicians. "It’s hard to become a musician—music is such an emotional thing and besides having a good technique, a musician always has to ask himself what he wants to express, how he wants to touch the audience."

Let the strings of music touch your heart as you soar to musical heights with the talented roster of instrumentalists in "Virtuoso Strings."

Catch Virtuoso Strings on March 9, 8 pm at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo. For tickets, call the CCP box office at 832-3704 or Ticketworld at 891-9999.