C1 CECILE LICAD ON CONCERT MEMORIES AND THE LOSS OF A SOULMATE
him, I felt at ease. The vibes were right,” she reveals. After the performance, Licad was treated like a pop star: music students ambushing her for selfies, fans asking the iconic pianist to autograph their programs.
In one of her three encores, she played Dedication (Widmung), a composition by Robert Schumann and arranged by Franz Liszt, as a tribute to her dearly departed friend. A line from it goes, “Du hebst mich liebend über mich.” (You lift me lovingly above myself.)
The Ave Maria quote at the end fits like a prayer, explains Cecile, trying to hold back tears.
“When I play, that’s where I can cry. I can convey my emotions through my fingers. I was at home in New York when I learned the news about Tita Nedy. For some reason, I didn’t want to believe it, at first, but then I heard it from Lulu (Casas).” Cecile cried herself to sleep.
“I was just talking to Tita Nedy a month ago. She was preparing for this show, super active in every detail. She was an action lady. She makes things happen. My connection with Tita Nedy
Wbecame deeper every time we got together in Manila. Parang soulmates kami without seeing each other all the time.”
The pianist laments how she has lost someone who gives her honest feedback.
“That’s very important for an artist. Tita Nedy was somebody who understood me. If I was frustrated about something, I would tell her, ‘This is what I would like to do artistically.’ She would always answer, ‘Of course, you have to do what you’re good at.’ She was always interested in how I could challenge myself as an artist. I know I can’t control every aspect of my personal life, but where I’m good at is in my fingers, with my piano.” hat’s her most treasured memory of Nedy Tantoco? Every moment with her was special, answers Cecile. “I have (this string of) good-luck beads, which I found on a beach in Iloilo. I always have it in my bag. Kaso naputol, nasira sa New York. Tita Nedy told me, ‘Give it to me. I will have it fixed.’”
It’s those little things that mean a lot.
“Tita Nedy would send flowers wherever I stayed, beautifully arranged flowers.” When Cecile came back to Manila a couple of weeks ago and was staying with the Tantocos, she found flowers in her bedroom. A sign from the patroness, perhaps?
Licad says, “Nedy’s son, Anton (Huang), is incredible. He’s willing to learn, so openminded. And he aims to continue what Tita Nedy started.”
Anton has a tough road ahead of him. He says, “My mom does have a lot of pending projects, and I’d very much like to see those projects through. Not just with the PPO. She was very much active in the arts and culture scene. She had her advocacies and was very passionate about them. She was also planning another concert with Cecile. Cecile and our family go way back — even to the time of my grandparents. I would love to continue cultivating the relationship with her and finding opportunities for her to come back to Manila and share her talent.”
When the pianist dedicated the SchumannLiszt
piece to Nedy, it was an emotional moment for Anton.
“When you’re seated at the right side of the theater, you can see Cecile playing, her fingers moving up and down, and you get mesmerized by all that. Not just in terms of the sound, but likewise the movement of her fingers. I listened. I watched. I was so focused on all of that. But it was only when Cecile introduced the piece… that’s when it hit me,” says Anton, his voice becoming sadder than the saddest of adagios. “That it’s actually my mom’s last concert.” Soon, Cecile Licad will go back to New York City, learn Scott Joplin or Bill Evans pieces for an upcoming project, watch murder series on Netflix in the small hours, maybe cook some adobo, most probably clean the apartment like crazy, and spray her clothes with a vodka-pepperminteucalyptus concoction of her own invention. Just an ordinary Filipina living in America? To a certain degree, yes. But this woman can coax joy, sadness, even the lightning bolts of the gods from those extraordinary fingers.