When it rains, it pours

EVEN heaven cooperated in giving a crack to our typhoon weather. Instead of the season’s downpour, cultural mavens were treated to an overflow of highbrow music last week and in the succeeding days ahead. Present company excepted, Filipinos are said to be able to sing before they could talk, dance before they could walk. If all good things are said to come in threes, as a much welcomed indulgence, we were served a quartet of e music:

• Harana (July 27, 28, and 29). Three days of performances showcasing the evolution of Philippine culture through song and dance at the Carlos P. Romulo auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati. This repeats the troupe’s successful performances in USA and Canada last year.

• Sentimientos 2 (Saturday, July 28). at the Bayleaf Hotel, Intramuros. Featured the music of young Mozarteumtrained Filipino classical violin virtuoso Joaquin Maria “Chino” Gutierrez. (An encore to his successful concert in 2017, and accompanied on the piano by Ms. Mary Anne Espina.)

• Manila Piano Trio (Wednesday, August 1, 8 p.m., Ayala Museum). Denise Santos-Huang (violin), Antoni Josef Inacay (cello), and Abelardo Goco Galang II (piano) are the resident chamber ensemble of Philippine Women’s University School of Music. Call tells. 09175335747 or 09777669658 for enquiry on tickets.

• An Evening of Chamber Music for Soprano, Cello and Piano (Thursday, 2 August). Andión Fernandez (soprano), Matias de Oliveira Pinto (cello), Mariel Ilusorio (piano). An invitation-only performance at the German Ambassador’s residence at South Forbes Park, Makati City.

* * * In a previous incarnation, we first met the impresario of Harana, Ms. Karla Gutierrez, a promising soprano endorsed by a Medici, Ambassador Al Yuchngco, for the Philippine Embassy concert in Berlin. (The high point of that memorable performance happened behind the curtain when her beau, Jed Carlos, was so enamored by her performance that he dropped to his knees at the balcony of Philippine Embassy Residence and proposed – and she accepted – matrimony.)

* * * Chino Gutierrez was a knee-high toddler when we heard of him from his doting grandmother who gifted him with a toy violin. The prodigy took the gift to heart and scaled the heights of musical notes. He is now scholar at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

Like Shakespeare, who does not repeat, in “Sentimientos 2,” Gutierrez performs pieces from various parts of Europe undulating a range of flavors and emotions (interpreted by Rachmaninoff, Albeniz, Dvorak, Debussy, Kreisler, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, etc.). This concert is impresario-ed by Bel Cunanan. (His other fairy godmother is the musical dowager Ching Montinola.)

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The Manila Trio (violinist Denise Santos-Huang, cellist Antoni Josef Inacay, and pianist Abelardo Goco Galang II) is the resident chamber ensemble of Philippine Women’s University School of Music. Violinist Santos-Huang is a masteral graduate at San Francisco State University, and 2004 winner of the SFU Concerto Competition. She performed Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with the SFU Orchestra, and was soloist, principal violinist, and concert master in the USA and with foreign and local orchestras.

Cellist Inacay earned his master’s from Boston Conservatory, USA. He was 2005 first-prize winner of National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA). A recipient of multiple scholarships from the Philippines and from the USA, he is principal cellist in local and international orchestras. Ms. Santos-Huang and Mr. Inacay are both graduates of St. Scholastica Conservatory of Music.

Berlin-based pianist Galang is a recording artist of German recording company, a proactive member of the academe, and a full-time concert pianist. He has a master’s degrees from Tokyo and a doctorate from Berlin, with a vast number o solo concerts, Lied collaborations, and chamber performances in Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and extensively in Germany and in the Philippines.

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I do not know what German Ambassador Dr. Gordon Kricke has under his baton (?) to attempt to impresario a high-powered ensemble of Andion Fernandez, Mariel Illusorio, and Oscar dela Oliviera.

Andion was a member of the Philippine Embassy (under an exceptional program of then Secretary of Foreign Affairs Blas F. Ople), where she was de facto cultural attaché of the embassy. After graduating with honors from the Hochsule der Kuenste, she has been with Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2001. With her good looks and high decibels, she has blossomed to be one of our most exciting coloratura. She is married to our enfant terrible musician composer Jeffrey Ching. (She sang the solo in his “Symphony No. 5, Kunstkammer,” and the title role in his new opera “The Orphan.” The couple have two kids who are bound to inherit the parents’ genes.)

Ms. Mariel Illusorio was first prize winner for Category A of the NAMCYA. I also had an opportunity to impresario Ms. Illusorio on the one day that the Philippines was the featured country at Hannover Expo 2000. She is returning to the land of her birth – 26 years since she moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School of Music. She has since blossomed to fulfill her dream which she followed when she left at age 14.

I have yet to discover the Brazilian cello artist Mr. Oscar dela Oliviera to form an opinion on what musical alchemy German Ambassador Kricke divines to surprise us with this week. FEEDBACK: