Grand music-making by the Loboc Children’s Choir, Pundaquit Virtuosi

Take one of the country’s award-winning children’s choirs, and pair it with some of the country’s youngest string players, and what do you get? Sheer musical heaven. When the Pundaquit Festival opened its 12th season last March 21, it brought together the homegrown Pundaquit Virtuosi with the Loboc Children’s Choir in a well-received program that was considered by many to be one of the Festival’s successes. The partnership was an inspired one, since the two ensembles played on each other’s strengths, mixing together the clear, ringing voices of the Boholano children with some of Zambales’ young instrumentalists. Performances like this one should be the winning ticket to bringing in a new generation of concertgoers back to the concert hall.

Pundaquit Festival founder and artistic director and Pundaquit Virtuosi director Alfonso "Coke" Bolipata took his time in bringing Bohol’s pride to the San Antonio, Zambales-based arts festival. Although there were efforts to bring the Loboc children to Zambales as early as in the ’90s, it was only now that the partnership has been realized. The meeting could not have been well-timed.

The Loboc Children’s Choir, led by Alma Fernando-Taldo, its musical director and conductor, brings with it 25 years of masterful achievement, capped by three first prize wins for children’s choir in the annual National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA) in 1993, 1995 and 2001. It has since been considered one of the country’s premier children’s choir, serving as the country’s cultural ambassadors to far off destinations as the United States, China and Hong Kong. As Bohol’s pride, it performs for local and foreign tourists and visiting dignitaries, including Queen Sofia of Spain. The choir also sings regularly for many of Loboc’s town religious and socio-civic events.

The Pundaquit Virtuosi has become the training ground for many of today’s young string musicians. Its emphasis on solid training and performance practice produce well-rounded individuals, many of who have moved on to non-musical careers. Although Bolipata spearheaded the training of the first batches of the Virtuosi, many of the ensemble’s products have taken over the chore of training today’s members.

The Pundaquit Festival is a holistic venue for the arts. With the Bolipata’s ancestral mango farm as its home, with a period-inspired building serving both as camp and performance space, it provides both artists and concertgoers a unique venue for arts appreciation.

The Loboc Children’s Choir took pride of place during the Pundaquit season opening concert. Performing a program of songs that show off its strengths – from religious and church hymns to standard, Broadway and pop, not to mention children’s and folk songs – the choir showed that evening’s audience the stuff it is made off. Like many children’s choir, the Loboc kids are not immune to the cutesies and clichés expected of many youth ensembles. However, they have the artistry to rise above the tawdry and possess the honesty to believe in their performances.

Opening with a ringing Lord’s Prayer, the Loboc choir displayed fine voices in familiar hymns and songs. Whether singing a capella or with organ accompaniment, they were formidable singers, singing as one when needed and bringing out the rich vocal textures in others. Although a mixed choir, the boys and girls voices are matched to offer a homogenous sound that makes the gender difference a non-issue.

Proof of the choir’s versatility followed with a group of familiar songs, including When You Wish Upon a Star, a medley of tunes from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz and a medley of ditties from the hit movie Sister Act. The choreography might have been pedestrian, but the kids dished it with panache.

The Loboc Children’s Choir and the Pundaquit Virtuosi came together in a series of folk song arrangements. Starting with the popular Sa Ugoy ng Duyan by Lucio San Pedro and Levi Celerio, they moved on to the more colorful demands of a medley of Visayan folk songs. As an encore, the group turned in a charming version of Kalesa.

The Pundaquit Virtuosi gave the crowd a sampling of its accomplishments in snippets from the classics, namely the final movement to Vivaldi’s "Summer Concerto" from The Four Seasons, the "Meditation" from Thais and a transcription of Sa Kabukiran by Redentor Romero, both featuring Bolipata as soloist, and the finale movement from Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 52 No. 2. Some of the instruments might have been out of tune or sounded too screechy, but you cannot fault these teeners when it came to musicality and dedication. They played like a professional ensemble, zipping from one number to another without hesitation.

Although the Pundaquit concerts only ran during the Holy Week – two other concerts featured Haydn’s Seven Last Words, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Bach’s Peasant Cantata – there are still a number of concerts scheduled during the next two months, highlighting Pundaquit musicians in solo recitals. Also scheduled is a dance concert by Myra Beltran, a collaborative multi-media piece on a Zambales folk tale, and Karimlan, an art exhibit by Zambales artist Zaniel Mariano.

For inquiries regarding the Pundaquit Festival, call 903-8657, 933-2392, 0915-6095670 and 0918-6506069.