Gifted Kabayao protege, Jimmy Tagala, in concert

I asked Mr. Kabayao’s permission to reprint the following letter:

Dear Ms. Orosa:

My wife Corazon and I read with much interest your August 15th column on Four Violin Prodigies, featuring young violinists Joseph Cruz Valdez, the Saraza brothers, Diomedes and Maurice Ivan, and the seven-year old Julian Eduque. I agree with your observation that in the Philippines, talented young pianists outnumber talented young violinists, but these past ten years, at the very least, we see an emerging new generation of Filipino young violinists who show great promise in making a name for themselves in the international music scene!

As a violinist, I am very excited with the prospect of seeing more and more of these talents being noticed and given the right training, and most importantly, for them to receive the kind of support that will allow them to grow musically and achieve excellence that will be comparable with those in the international arena of violin playing.

Many talented Filipino children may grow up without knowing what gifts they actually have. The Cuban government discovered many of their extremely gifted male ballet dancers from the orphanages and the poor sections of the city; in China, any child that shows talent in music, dance, and sports even as early as 3 to 4 automatically becomes a scholar of the state, given the training, proper care and support to ensure the full development of the child towards making a name for the country.

I have now one of the very few violin students I manage to teach owing to my irregular teaching schedule in Manila. JIMMY TAGALA JR. is now 16 years old and I am presenting him in concert debut on Oct. 8 at Philamlife Auditorium, where he will perform two challenging works, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D and Khachaturian's Violin Concerto. His case is unique because he started playing the violin only when he was almost 12 years old! Although he comes from a musically gifted family with a mother who plays the piano, and two older brothers who play the flute and the violin/viola, Jimjim, as he is called, started his violin lessons only less than four years ago. His gifts were not noticed until he joined the NAMCYA Violin Category A in 2002 with barely six months of violin studies with Prof. Mitch Martinez at the UP College of Music. Yet, Jimjim won second place, playing Vivaldi’s Concerto in G Minor, Kreutzer Etude No. 1 and Cavatina. His mother traced my whereabouts in Iloilo and then in Manila just to see the possibility of my listening to her son play the violin. Apparently, Jimjim and his family attended one of my concerts in Manila where he declared after he heard me play, “I want to be a violin virtuoso like Gilopez Kabayao!”

(Gilopez strenuously objected to my inclusion of this latter sentence but I overruled his objection because Jimjim’s declaration is a significant part of the letter. — r. l. o.).

Jimjim was still playing Twinkle, twinkle Little Star three years ago when most of the competitors at the time were already playing the standard violin concertos. At 15, he qualified to join the Asian Youth Orchestra on its 2006 Asian Tour, with 100 young musicians selected and auditioned from 10 different regions in Asia.

Again, he had the distinction of being the youngest member to join the orchestra. Jimjim is at present a senior high school student at the Adventist U. of the Philippines and is a member of the AUP Chamber Orchestra.

To date, Jimjim has already learned the following works for the violin (see below) since he started with me over two and a half years ago. My purpose is to prepare him with a repertoire that is normally required for international competitions or acceptance to any music school in other countries. My family has been so involved in Jimjim’s future as a violinist, the children even suggest that we adopt Jimjim as their younger brother! We are looking further to his future as a concert violinist. He now plays 13 Paganini Caprices/Ysaye Sonata No. 4 for Solo Violin/Wieniawski’s Scherzo Tarantelle/ Paganini-Moto Perpetuo/Beethoven Sonata No. 1 in D Major/Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto in D Minor/Beethoven Violin Concerto/Khachaturian Violin Concerto/Bahay Kubo Variations for Solo Violin.

The Oct. 8 concert will mark Jimjim’s debut on the concert stage as soloist. I shall be conducting the UST Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major and Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D Minor.

Sponsors are the Adventist U. of the Philippines and the Philamlife Foundation. Matinee is at 2 p.m., the gala performance is at 8 p.m. Proceeds will go to the AUP Music Building project.

Thank you for helping our young talented musicians by way of getting readers to contribute their share to “investing” in gifted Filipino youth. You have always inspired artists like us to give nothing but our best!

Sincerely yours,

Gilopez Kabayao

Gilopez’s detailed evaluation of Jimmy Tagala’s considerable talent and dedication, as also of his incredible progress, should be a persuasive inducement to all music lovers to attend his concert debut. Further, it has been a long time since Gilopez conducted. On Monday, he will wield the baton!

For inquiries call 0917-8130873 or 927-9313893 or 5670127.