Bamboo Organ Festival / Chito was soiree host

The 32nd International Bamboo Organ Festival will run from Feb. 22 to March 1 in St. Joseph’s Church, Las Piñas City. It will focus primarily on sacred music but to broaden its appeal, a "Concert under the Trees" on Feb. 24 will feature popular music.

The invitational gala on Feb. 22 will celebrate the special relations between Las Piñas and the CICM (Belgian) missionaries who are marking the centennial of their presence this year. The missionary order provided Las Piñas with parish priests for about 85 years, and during their tenure, the bamboo organ, after many years in disuse, was repaired, this leading to the festival.

On Feb. 22, "Baroque Masters" — with a repeat on the 23rd — will feature Bach’s Cantata No. 52 for soprano, the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 transcribed for four-hand piano, three Scarlatti sonatas, and Suite No. 16 by Weiss for a guitar duo. The opening concert will have Armando Salarza as organist; the second night, Dalibor Miklavcic from Slovenia.

Other performers: Camille L. Molina, soprano; Anamaria de Guzman and Najib Ismail, pianists; guitarists Sixto Roxas and Ruben Reyes, the Las Piñas Boys Choir, and the Festival Orchestra under Jonathan Velasco.

On Feb. 24, in "Concert under the Trees", Rico J. Puno and Jacqui Magno, assisted by Christine Love Marcaida and Rita Daniela Iringan, will sing.

On Feb. 26, Slovenian Miklavcic will give a full recital on the historic bamboo organ, and the contemporary one in the auditorium, the first Filipino organ built by the Diego Cera Organ Builders founded in 1994 by Cealwyn Tagle and Edgar Montano. Miklavcic will render works by Frescobaldi, Bach, Dubois and others.

On Feb. 27, "Fiesta Musika" pays tribute to National Artist Lucio D. San Pedro whose works will be interpreted by soprano Camille L. Molina, tenor Abdul Candao, clarinetist Randy Lopez, the Diego Cera Trio, the BSJ Woodwind Quintet and the Las Piñas Boys Choir directed by Armando Salarza.

On March 1, the Festival will close with an "Ode to St. Cecilia", patron saint of music, with organ and choral pieces by Schubiger, Britten and Handel rendered by Austrian organist Dr. Johann Trummer, singers Molina and Candao, the Ateneo Chamber Singers and the Festival Orchestra under Jonathan Velasco.

Slovenian organist Miklavcic studied in Vienna and Milan. An award-winner in European competitions, he concertizes regularly all over Europe. He founded the Slovenian Organ Society, has taught at the state university, lectures at master classes and academies in Italy, Germany and Austria, and has recorded several CDs. His organ at home is adorned with wood-carvings made by the Diego Cera Organ Builders of Las Piñas.

Austrian organist Trummer, a priest, studied musicology at the U. of Graz, Austria, earning diplomas in organ and harpsichord. He has taught music since 1966, becoming dean of the Institute of Performance Practice, and since 2000, dean of the Institute of Church Music and Organ. He teaches at the state conservatories of Moscow and Minsk, and has written on liturgy, music, Austrian church music history, congregational song and performance practice. He performs on both organ and harpsichord, and lectures in Europe, Russia, the US and Canada.

Salarza, the bamboo organ titular organist, gave his first concert at 11, and became the Las Piñas Boys’ Choir accompanist while still a student. After high school, he finished in Graz and Vienna with highest honors ten years later. He has given recitals in Europe and the US.

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Erratum: It was Chito Madrigal Collantes who hosted Monday’s soiree featuring pianist Raul Sunico at her residence and not the FFCP (Friends of the Cultural Concerns of the Philippines) as earlier noted.