TAMPIL Children Rondalla performs at Philamlife

MANILA, Philippines - Tahanan ng Musikang Pilipino (TAMPIL) of Wesleyan College of Manila in cooperation with National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and Philamlife Insurance Co. presents the TAMPIL Children Rondalla in a concert today at 3 p.m. at the Philamlife Theater, U.N. Avenue, Manila. The Rondalla, whose members are between eight and 12 years old, performs Jerry A. Dadap’s Medley for Children Rondalla Nos. 1, 2 and 5. Dadap has written five medleys for Children Rondalla based on folk songs. Trainor Menchie Portento conducts.

Other performers are the Andres Bonifacio Choir (ABC), The Wesleyan College of Manila Vocal Ensemble led by Arcadio Jeffrey Perida and the Andres Bonifacio Elementary School Alumni Rondalla.

TAMPIL founder Bishop Emerito Nacpil says that the three-month old TAMPIL Children Rondalla will be trained and nurtured to become the first symphonic rondalla in the near future. Symphonic rondalla depends on its instrumentation and orchestration. As far as rondalla compositions are concerned, our composers should be encouraged to compose, orchestrate for rondalla of “symphonic” caliber. In instrumentation, it is necessary to adopt the so-called contra-octavina to fill up the gap between the octavina and bass instruments. The contra-octavina is an innovation of guitarist-composer Michael Dadap who uses it as the “cello” of the Orchestra Sin Cuerdas of Silliman University. The first string of contra-octavina is tuned middle C, its sixth string is tuned B, one note lower than the lowest note of the cello. It is notated in bass clef. Hopefully, the NCCA will commission composers to write symphonies and overtures for Rondalla. Student tickets priced at P150 each are available at the theater lobby. For details, call 303-4031-35/522-7439.