A launch/A staged reading/'Balty' on MCO Foundation/Fil-French bishop's kin

The exhibit opening of “Vargas Collection History” and “The Vargas Collection”, and the book launch of Sen. Edgardo J. Angara’s “A Political Life in the Arts” were held Feb. 23 at the Vargas Museum. Illness prevented me from attending the event.

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In celebration of the 100th birthday of distinguished educator Silvina del Carmen Laya, widow of eminent novelist Juan C. Laya, her children — Jaime Laya, Eleanor de Gracia, Susana Mysen and Trinidad Sensenug — presented a staged reading of excerpts from the three-act play Sa Sariling Lupa by Juan C. Laya. The play is based on his novel “His Native Soil” which won the Commonwealth Literary Award in 1940, the first and only time the award was given.

The reading featured Tony Mabesa, Shamaine Centenara, Ron Capindig, Frances Makil and mezzo-soprano Clarissa Ocampo for whom San Pedro’s music was re-arranged by Arnel de Pano. Floy Quintos directed.

. 6, 2010

Dear Miss Orosa:

Thank you for your column on Joseph Esmilla and Rudolf Golez today. As usual, with your other reviews, this one was EXCELLENT . . . critically perceptive and precisely put.

Allow me to make just this small point. It may not be entirely accurate to say that “the MCO Foundation was established by Armando Baltazar.” That credit most appropriately belongs to Mr. Antonio H. Ozaeta — for 12 years the President of PCIBank — and Prof. Sergio Esmilla Jr., eminent violinist himself and erstwhile conductor and mentor of the Philippine Youth Orchestra and of the Manila Symphony Orchestra. They conceived and established the MCO Foundation. Although it is true I was Executive Director of the Foundation for 23 years — and thereby became more visibly associated with it — it was the vision and collaboration of Mr. Ozaeta and Prof. Esmilla that truly nurtured the Manila Chamber Orchestra.

The MCO Foundation continues that “dream” and purpose of offering to the cultural community, especially of Makati, the “best” of the classical arts.

Again, thank you.

  Armando “Balty” Baltazar

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A letter from Lina Araneta Santiago, daughter of Don Salvador Araneta and sister of Marivic A. Concepcion, informs me that the Auxiliary Bishop of Paris Eric Marie de Moulins d’Amieu de Beaufort, the great great grandson of Don Francisco Roxas who was executed in Bagongbayan, will be meeting his “long lost cousins”.

Bishop Eric, who proudly tells Parisians he is French-Filipino, is breaking a 50-year silence by searching for his relatives. He will say mass at the Araneta Chapel in Malabon on Feb. 25 at 4 p.m. Reception follows. The mass is in memory of Bishop Eric’s great-grandmother Doña Maria Vicenta Roxas y Elio who married Count Charles d’Amieu de Beaufort, and of Bishop Eric’s great-grandmother’s parents, Don Francisco Roxas y Reyes (a grandson of Antonio Roxas and Lucina Arroyo) and Doña Maria Elio de Roxas.

The grand family gathering to be hosted by Lina will bring together old Manila families: the Aranetas, Roxases, Zaragozas, Ortolls, Briases and Infantes. Conchita Ortoll, 96, the only living niece of Tia Presentacion and Tia Vicenta, daughters of Doña Maria Elio Roxas, will be at the reunion.

Bishop Eric, 46, was ordained priest in 1991 and appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Paris and Titular Bishop of Cresima in 2008. Rosemarie Clemeña, Dee Zobel and Antonio Araneta helped trace Bishop Eric’s roots which go back to Binondo.

Contact persons for other “lost cousins” are Angel Araneta del Rosario and Lina for the Araneta clan; Cristina Tuason and Cuquita Matute Jordana for the Tuason and Arroyo families; Javier Infante for the Infante and Brias families.

Ramirez-Espina recital

The GSIS Museum will present a free recital featuring oboeist Franz Miguel Ramirez and pianist Mary Anne Espina on Feb. 25, 6 p.m. in Loeillet’s Sonata in C Major, Schumann’s “Three Romances”, Poulenc’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano and Nielsen’s “Romance” and “Humoresque”.

Ramirez, a NAMCYA first-prize winner, plays for FILharmonika and Manila Philharmonic. He has worked with international conductors.

A most sought-after assisting artist, Espina collaborates with outstanding local and international performers.