50 years of musical romance
On Monday, Dec. 23, a unique four-in-one event will take place at Makati Shangri-la Manila. This will be a celebration of the 45 years of marriage of Gilopez Kabayao and Corazon Pineda Kabayao, their 50 years of musical partnership, Gilopez’s turning 90, and Corazon 70.
The Kabayao-Pineda life and love story is recorded in a coffee table book titled Artist for the Filipino People, GILOPEZ KABAYAO, the Philippines’ Violin Virtuoso and Musical Crusader.
Like the iconic couple itself, the volume is differently unusual and fascinating. Instead of long narrations of accomplishments and rewards, it tells in pictures (as they say, pictures speak a thousand words) and descriptive captions the evolution of the violinist Gilopez from when he was little in Iloilo City to his becoming a world renowned artist.
Theirs is a beautiful story that starts in 1969 with Gilopez listening to a 19-year-old student from the University of Santo Tomas who unknowingly would become his wife as she was playing the second movement of Chopin Concerto in f Minor at a concert – and moves on about their marriage five years after that eventful meeting that synergically complements their skills as violinist and pianist, and their continuing of Gilopez’s one-man crusade of bringing classical music to the rural areas, at open air stadiums, market places, schools and cockpits through lectures and recitals.
The pictures show the happiness radiating in their faces as they play together – he in his Stradivarius, she in her baby grand piano. The radiation is confirmed by people who watch them play in person. Not even Mozart and Schumann had such ideal working relationships with their spouses on the concert stage, a writer wrote.
Characteristically, Corazon, a lovely, soft-spoken (as is Gilopez) woman, took on the daunting task of putting into a single volume the events in “six decades of learning, concertizing, traveling, teaching and fulfilling a lifetime mission of music proselyting. But one musters the persistence and the boldness to undertake such an ambitious task, armed with two significant sources: a vast photo coverage of the classical musician’s life spanning four generations of his musical family, and a voluminous record of concert reviews, editorials, feature articles and tributes.”
The biography, writes Corazon, tells “the continuing saga of an artist in pursuit of his destiny. . . (It) is a summary of a life lived to the fullest . . . a record of time well spent . . . a gift selflessly and willingly shared . . . a life’s offering widely accepted and deeply appreciated by legions ….”
Of the tributes, here is one from the New York Times, 1950: “The young Filipino violinist, Gilopez Kabayao, who appeared at Carnegie Hall, has all the earmarks of the true virtuoso. There is style and authority about his playing, a splendid technique, and even a touch of that natural exhibitionism which is an essential part of the virtuoso’s equipment . . . .” All the reviews, recorded in the book, are from distinguished critics listening to at first, Gilopez’s artistry, and later, to the couple’s partnership, in highly discriminating concert stages in the US, Europe and Asia.
A scion of a family for whom music is like breathing, the artistic talents of Gilopez Kabayao and his relatives span three generations. Gilopez’s maternal grandfather, composer Don Gil Lopez, taught his daughters to sing, play the violin, viola and piano.
The strongest influence in Gilopez’s life has been his father, Doroteo Kabayao, plus his mother, Marcela, also a capable pianist, and three sisters, Punay, Marcela and Nita.
Corazon evolved into her husband’s partner in his remarkable crusade. Together, they reached out to students from all grade levels from public and private schools. “We were never discouraged by the limitations of facilities, the size of the school population, the seeming lack of interest among school officials. Through the years of giving lecture-recitals in schools all over the Philippines, we have seen how fine music can make a lasting impact on a child, as if to prove the veracity of the saying that goes, “Music can soothe the savage breast. . . A one-and-a-half hour experience of being introduced to the beauty and power of music of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, even of seldom heard composers like Khatchaturian, Szymanowski and Sarasati, brought such degree of excitement to children ranging from primary to secondary levels.”
Gilopez’s musical crusade of bringing the music of the masters to the masses has been recognized with the President Ramon Magsaysay Award for Outstanding Public Service in 1972 and the Presidential Award of Merit in 1968.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts conferred upon the couple the 2007 Gawad Alab ng Haraya, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines the 2008 Gawad CCP for Music “for their dedication and the fervor with which they have sought to promote the appreciation of classical music.”
The Kabayaos are grateful for the support given by business groups, enabling them to defray their travel expenses, as well as to allow students and parents to attend their concerts at reduced prices. They do not believe in performing for free. They zero in on the boys in the listening groups, so when they grow up to be leaders in government and in the community they will be sponsoring concerts, exhibits, cultural projects, and scholarships for artists.
It is no guarantee that musician parents will automatically produce children who will eventually take their parents’ musical profession, writes Corazon. When their eldest child, Sicilienne was born, Gilopez and Corazon agreed that they will not force their children to take up music as a profession. “The only condition we imposed is for them to have music in their lives, for they will not only be gifted, but will have to use their musical genes to make people happy and bring joy whenever they can through their music.”
And the children took their word – but more. Sicilienne, a two-time prize winner of NAMCYA was invited to the Prize Winners Concert in Hongkong when she was 10 and performed Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with her father, and Julian Quirit, conducting the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. She holds a degree in broadcast communication from UP in the Visayas, and served as production manager of major theater productions in Iloilo city.
The second daughter, Farida, has a degree in history from UP in the Visayas and a masters in language and literature from the De la Salle University, Manila. Beyond her violin playing and singing, Farida is a passionate theater actress, having essayed the lead roles in the Iloilo productions of “The Miracle Worker,” “My Fair Lady,” “The Diary of Anne Frank,” ‘Panayanon,” and “The Loudest Whisper”.
Gilberto, the youngest and only boy, showed dexterity on the piano as early as four years old. Basketball lured him away from piano playing, but he continues to play the violin to be able to join the family in world musical tours. He has a degree in export management and joined the US Air Force for five years of active duty and was surgical assistant and later as head of the supplies department
Says Corazon: “Our children not have become professional musicians like their parents, but we are happily content that in their lives, they have found and experienced the enriching beauty and power of classical music. We know that in their own individual ways, they are continuing the Kabayao family tradition of excellence, playing their favorite instruments in celebration of their own kind of life. We have successfully bequeathed to them a most precious legacy!”
For sure, Gilopez and Corazon and their three children will be playing for their invited guests at their celebratory event on December 23.
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