Pushing for balance between pop, classical in the MTV generation

CEBU, Philippines - He could have had a great performing career in New York, the city he considers his second home, but love of country prevailed for Maestro Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz—the man considered to be the most internationally-awarded Filipino concert pianist and pioneer of the renaissance of classical music awareness in the Philippines.

His grandmother, Pura Lacson-Villanueva, was a pianist and the first female conductor in the Philippines. She was the piano teacher of national artist Lucresia Casilag. His mother is concert pianist Lourdes Lacson Villanueva-Cruz, who after nine children was already very frustrated for not having successfully lured any of them to pursue a career in classical music.

At 49 years old, Mrs. Cruz gave birth to her 10th and youngest child, who was to be the family’s child prodigy.

“None of my siblings pursued it even if they were all taught. There’s a 10-year gap between me and the ninth child. My mother really made sure that she had to have a concert pianist in the family,” Jovianney laughingly related. His mother hails from Bacolod while his father is from Bataan.

The FREEMAN was able to talk to the Maestro during the recent launch of Marco Polo Plaza’s hampagne Series “Music Without Borders” program at the hotel’s Grand Ballroom with acclaimed Taiwanese pianists Maestro Ying-Kuan Hong and Maestra Chi-Ying Hung.

It was at age three when he began his piano studies with his mother. At six, he was invited to give a command performance at Malacañang for then First Lady Imelda Marcos and at age 10, he made his orchestral debut with the Philippine Youth Orchestra after winning First Prize in the National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA).

The Young Artists Foundation of the Philippines then granted him a scholarship for piano studies in Manchester, England and then in New York where he was a pupil of the “eminent piano pedagogue Solomon Mikowsky.”

“After my grade school in Ateneo, I moved to England for a year to study at Chetham’s School of Music, which is a school for gifted children. I wasn’t so crazy about it so I just spent one year there. So I moved to New York which basically changed my life. I lived there for 15 years,” Jovianney, who said he memorized everything that was thrown at him in school, shared.

He received his Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees in Piano Performance, and was bestowed the Harold Bauer Award, the most coveted recognition given to a pianist with the highest honors at the Manhattan School of Music.

Award-winning, critically-acclaimed

Along the way, he amassed more awards, a long string of solo recitals, chamber music collaborations, and is consistently requested to conduct master classes in various parts of the world.

“I competed so many times in my life. I was in a good position that very few Filipinos pursued being a classical pianist and so very few could represent the country. It’s not like in China where you have 30 million pianists now out of 2 billion people. They’re making it into a career because the great pianists there are considered superstars.”

An international paper once reviewed one of his performances as “…a thrilling and exquisite interpretation…He made the piano sing from the first note to the last, every nuance and every phrase beautifully executed.”

Asked to name some of the memorable places he has performed in all over the world, Jovianney’s first pick is a beautiful concert hall in the Canary Islands.

“The backdrop is glass and it overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. When the sun is up, the windows are open. When the sun starts setting, there are curtains that automatically go down as well,” he described. “That happened to me once when I was playing with the orchestra there. It was a summer in Spain, so the sun was out until 8 in the evening. By the time I was just ending my 18th variation, the sun started setting so the curtains were also going down. So there was a dramatic effect which we didn’t even plan.”

He also loves playing in New York as he has lived there most of his life. “It’s a great city, a different planet on its own. Europe is also always beautiful to play in especially Italy and Spain. A lot of them really go and fill up the performances. They really are appreciative of classical music.”

The international success notwithstanding, Jovianney contemplated for at least five years after taking his master’s degree on whether he should go back to Manila to help a little bit with its arts and culture scene or have a nice performing career in New York. In 1995, he decided to return home “to see if I can contribute to enhancing the arts and culture in my neck of the woods, you know, where I was born.”

He has been an Associate Professor in Piano Performance at the University of the Philippines College of Music and has also been a consultant to music conservatories such as the Philippine Women’s University, St. Paul’s University, the Center for Applied Music at the Miriam College, and the University of the City of Manila. He has produced prize-winning students, most of whom have pursued further studies abroad.

“I teach a lot. I taught at UP for 16 years. Then I wanted to be more effective outside of UP, so I decided to settle for a professorial lecturer status so I could teach more and give consultations to different schools,” he said.

In 1996, then President Fidel V. Ramos conferred on him the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) award for his contribution to the arts. (FREEMANENTERTAIMENT)