World class rondalla concert at Silliman

The Silliman University Cultural Affairs Committee joins in the Second International Rondalla Festival by presenting four world-class ensembles in a concert billed as One: Cuerdas sa Panaghiusa, on February 22 at the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium.

The concert will gather together acclaimed rondalla groups from Negros, including Kabataang Silay Ensemble from Negros Occidental and Kwerdas from Oriental Negros, with Quartette Phoenix from Ekaterinburg, Russia and Three Plucked Strings from Israel.

The Kabataang Silay Ensemble started in 1993 as a group of primary school students who had successfully hurdled auditions conducted by the cultural staff of Silay City. Today, it continues to gather its players from an annual summer training workshop, and has made a distinction not only for actively promoting traditional Filipino folk music and dance, but also for serving as an effective component for tourism promotion and youth development.

The group has earned the title of "Young Cultural Ambassadors" in their extensive tours within the country to exhibit and display the rich cultural heritage of Silay. The group has represented the Philippines in the Second Asian Children's Folklore Festival in Guandong, China in 2000, where they received the "Performance Memento" distinction. In 2001, they were given the Award of Excellence for their performance in the 2001 Aberdeen International Youth Festival held in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The Quartette Phoenix was created in 2001 as a group of graduates of the Ural State Academy of Music that included Inessa Gareeva (on the domra), Anatoly Kazakov (domra-viola), Radi Gareev (double-bass balalaika), and Alexander Ivanov (accordion), all of them acclaimed laureates of various international competitions.

The group has been critically acclaimed for its "originality and brilliance in ensemble performance," as well as in their diversity of style and repertoire that has made Quartette Phoenix popular among Russian audiences. This repertoire covers a wide range of music, including transcriptions of popular compositions from Bach to Lashenko, and Russian national melodies.

Three Plucked Strings is a contemporary music ensemble dedicated to the performance of pieces by foremost Israeli composers, commissioned especially for this trio. The ensemble was founded in 2000, after the posthumous discovery of a rare work for mandolin, guitar and harpsichord, never performed, written by the acclaimed Israeli composer, the late Paul Ben-Haim.

More than ten original works have since been written for the ensemble, by such respected composers as Tzvi Avni, Yehezkel Braun, Haim Alexander, Abel Ehrlich, Michael Wolfe and Slava Ganelin. In addition, the Filipino foremost composer Dr. Ramon Santos has dedicated his piece "BU-KA" to the ensemble. Three Plucked Strings has performed widely in Israel, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Their recordings have been broadcasted on Kol HaMuzika in Israel and on WQXR in New York, and they have also appeared on Israeli National television. The works presented in the current programme serve as a type of introduction to the colorful and diverse character of the Jewish and Israeli culture.

Kwerdas is a six-member rondalla group composed of students, faculty, and alumni of Silliman University's College of Performing Arts. It started in 1999 as an ad-hoc rondalla group with the purpose of performing the Bachianas Brasilieras no. 5 by Heitor Villalobos for one of the soprano students of acclaimed ethnomusicologist Prof. Priscilla Magdamo-Abraham.

Since that inauspicious beginning, the group has gone on to national acclaim, and has performed in international exhibitions and competitions. They were among the pioneer participants of the 1st International Rondalla Festival in Bicol, and was chosen to perform at the Cultural Center of the Philippines with four other groups for the Festival's final concert.

The second edition of the International Rondalla Festival, which is presented by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Province of Oriental Negros in cooperation with the University of the Philippines College of Music and the Musicological Society of the Philippines, aims to explore the uniqueness of the Filipino rondalla as national heritage with a long tradition evolving from the Spanish and Latin American comparsa and estudiantina, which the rondalla has adapted to express a nationally specific consciousness. A late 18th century tradition, the rondalla in the Philippines has come to encompass a variety of folk songs, dances, and short pieces from full-blown classical to modern compositions and adaptations.

The festival also aims to showcase the international expression of the Filipino rondalla, and how the national musical culture has proliferated in the current Filipino diaspora, serving not only as a symbol of national identity but also as a link to the expressions of the mother culture. It also takes into account its musical connection with string music covering the Arab region and cultures around the Mediterranean, as well as Western and Eastern Europe and various parts of the Asian continent.

Aside from the four ensembles mentioned, Cuerdas sa Panaghiusa-the Cebuano equivalent of the Strings of Unity or Cuerdas de Unidad-is a week-long event (slated from February 19-25) featuring other local and international rondallas and plucked string ensembles, totaling some 400 artists and practitioners. They will engage in daily concerts, multiple outreach performances to outlying localities such as Cebu, Bohol, and Siquijor island, a conference on aspects of the rondalla tradition, historical and national styles, workshops in performance techniques and instrument-making, exhibition, and an international rondalla congress. Other special events are also being lined up by the organizers and the host agency, the province of Oriental Negros.

The event is intended to promote the UNESCO-International Music Council action program on cultural and musical diversity, a standing commitment of the Filipinos to advance the cause of world peace and understanding through the celebration of shared cultural heritage.

The show is part of the cultural season of the Silliman University Cultural Affairs Committee. Tickets are available at the Silliman University College of Performing Arts Office, the Luce Auditorium Office, and at the theater lobby before the show. Season passes are honored. For inquiries and ticket reservations, please see posters and banners for more details, or contact (035)422-6002 loc. 520.