Choirboys grow up too

MANILA, Philippines –  Growing up under the wings of the Dominican Order can be quite demanding.

It is, after all, the Ordo Praedicatorum – the Order of Preachers, famed for its intellectual tradition. But being raised to think and act Dominican means being able to preach in the vernacular. And this has taken on an entirely new meaning for Nicanor Infante, whose chosen language is choral music.

Infante started out as a member of the Tiples de Santo Domingo, undoubtedly one of the country’s finest boys choirs, whose angelic voices have been serving the parishioners at the Sto. Domingo Church, following a 400-year old tradition initiated by Fr. Pedro Bolano through the Escuela de Tiples in 1587. In Spanish, the word tiple roughly translates to “the high-pitched voice of women and children.” The Tiples’ voices are the sound of innocence – pure and unaffected – and in the olden days, they lived in the church, were reared in the service of God, and educated as scholars.

That mantle of musical training solidified as Infante grew older and eventually earned a degree from the University of Santo Tomas as a voice major. Since then, he has become involved with Coro Tomasino, the Letran Chorale, the Sto. Domingo Male Chorale, and the Lyceum of the Philippines Chorale.

More recently, however, Nick Infante began making a name for himself as choirmaster for community groups involving children from marginalized sectors. Under the mayoralty term of Lito Atienza, the Manila Dance and Cultural Arts Foundation made room for poor, young kids with singing talent in a group called Hiyas ng Maynila, and put them under the joint stewardship of Infante and renowned tenor Lemuel dela Cruz. With the city’s administrative turnover, however, the ensemble was forced to use the name Hiyas ng Pilipinas when they competed in and eventually won the championship in the 2007 Himig ng Pasko Children’s Choir Competition staged by the Manila Broadcasting Company and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. 

With MBC expanding the contest to include an open category in 2008, Hiyas triumphed anew, scoring even higher than their older NAMCYA-honed counterparts in the grand finals. A third straight win came in 2009, which resulted in the choir’s being elevated to the Hall of Fame.

Infante’s formula for turning underprivileged children into first-rate choristers caught the attention of the Quezon City Performing Arts Development Foundation, headed by Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, who encouraged him to do the same in the city where he actually resides. Infante took on the challenge and went a step further. Boldly auditioning in October with a ragtag group of public school students whom he had been giving lessons to for only two weeks, the QCPA Children’s Choir landed a seat in the semifinals of the 2010 MBC National Choral Competition, and shocked their counterparts by turning in a supremely clean vocal performance en route to the children’s choir championship.

Jury chair Jonathan Velasco, who a year earlier had raved about the crisply clear sopranos of Hiyas, humorously quipped that Infante was a like a mayor who changed residency to another town to be able to run again. Grinning sheepishly and constantly shaking his head in amazement, Infante could not believe his luck of being called to receive the first prize for the fourth year in a row. As program hosts Nicole Hyala and Chris Tsuper of 90.7 Love Radio joked “Kayo na naman! Pang-apat na beses na kayo umaakyat para tumaggap ng isandaang libo, ah! Iba-ban na raw kayo next year.”   In the gallery, his wards at Hiyas were in tears – “Hindi n’yo na kami mahal...sila na ngayon!”

Infante remains optimistic that the example he has set for both the students of Manila and Quezon City will set the pace for other municipalities in pegging chorister training as an alternative education program for their respective communities.

Infante’s experiences with Hiyas ng Pilipinas and the QCPA Children’s Choir must certainly go beyond the choirmaster-chorister relationship. Both groups celebrate their victories via outings that underscore simple joys and ensure that the kids enjoy what they do. It is perhaps a situation thoroughly familiar to other youth ensembles such as the Las Piñas Boys Choir under Armando Salarza, as well as the current crop of Tiples under Eugene de los Santos. 

Vice Mayor Belmonte has all the reasons to crow about QCPA Children’s Choir’s recent victory. It is a vindication of the effort put in by their trustees and affiliate artists to instill underprivileged children with a sense of pride, helping them discover a sense of self-worth, and inculcating the importance of discipline, hard work, proper conduct and a philosophy of excellence. 

Infante encapsulates all that and more. As a music teacher, he considers himself more than just a plain civil servant. He is simultaneously a mentor, guidance counselor, second parent, and friend to his wards. In his hands lie the mindsets, attitudes and values of future generations of choristers. And inspired by St. Dominic Savio, the young peasant boy canonized at the age of 14 who became patron saint of choirboys, he echoes: “I can’t do big things. But I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God.