THE CITY’S PILLAR OF EXCELLENCE IN THE ARTS
THE Sentrong Pangkultura ng Biñan, a Cultural Center of the Philippines Regional Art Center, takes pride in its resident company program comprising of numerous artistic groups in the fields of theatre, dance, and music. The Biñan City Centre for Performing Arts, Inc. (BCPA), a first of its kind in any local government unit (LGU) in the country, is the city’s premier showcase in artistic excellence.
Launched on May 21, 2017, through the passage of City Resolution 50A-2017, BCPA gave birth to various performing art groups as the city’s official performing arts wing under the Biñan City Culture, History, Arts and Tourism Office (BCHATO). It includes the Biñan Youth Performance Council (YPC) for theatre arts, Biñan Folkloric Dance Troupe (BFDT) for folk dance, Biñan Metropolitan Chorus (BMC) for choral music, Biñan Kawayan Music Ensemble (BKME) and the Biñan Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (BYPO) for instrumental music.
BCPA has been cultivating the culture of art appreciation among Biñanenses for the past few years, enabling the community to experience art in their daily lives as it mounts performances and various artistic ventures to utilize the many venues in Biñan. BCPA is instrumental in Biñan’s burgeoning performing arts scene.
Performing groups
THROUGH the adoption of City Resolution 32-2021, new performing art groups were named to formally join the BCPA: the Biñan City Brass Band (BCBB) for band music, the Biñan Symphonic Rondalla (BSR) for Hispanic string music, and the Biñan Vocal Ensemble (BIVE) for pop music.
BCPA, for six years now, has been indefatigably promoting culture through the arts. The group is very consistent in its commitment to value and promote Filipino artistic heritage; provide a training ground for Biñanenses who wish to pursue and master their art; mount public programs for the preservation of local artistic heritage and talents; showcase the talents of Biñanenses on national and international platforms; and support the City Government of Biñan in all of its cultural and artistic initiatives.
BCPA’S most notable achievements and performances include a show at Concert at the Park organized by the National Parks Development Committee, and “PAMANA: The Philippine History in Movements/ Binyang the Musical,” a dance-theatre production that won a grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and made it to the roster of 2020 LEAF Awards finalist for Outstanding Dance Production.
Best Program for Culture and the Arts
BCPA also represented the Philippines in the 12th International Bamboo Music Festival held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia featuring its very own BKME. Not only that, BCPA had triumphantly performed the tale of “Faust,” a classic German legend, at the 2022 Asian Cross-international Online Performance in Tokyo, Japan.
Each group under the BCPA has successfully mounted their own concerts and public programs for the arts. It has received countless invitations to perform in and outside the country. It has even won numerous accolades and recognitions from both local and national institutions.
Recently, BCPA was named Best Program for Culture and the Arts in the Pearl Awards 2022 conferred by the Department of Tourism and the Association of Tourism Officers in the Philippines.
Indeed, through BCPA, buhay ang sining sa Biñan!
The group can be reached via its official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/binancpa or through email at binancpa@gmail.com.