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UPCC 50th Anniversary Gala Concert on Dec 21 The Friends of Korus Foundation, Inc. in cooperation with Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA) is cordially inviting you to watch the University of the Philippines Concert Chorus (UPCC) in it's Golden Anniversary Gala Concert on Friday, December 21, 2012, 7:00PM at the University of the Philippines Theater, UP Diliman Campus, Quezon City, Philippines. Ticket prices and further details in poster below. Please click the image to view the full size. Click for full image   Tweet   Don't miss a single post! Click this to Subscribe to Reyjr.com

Has it been 10 years? Yes, indeed it has! But even though we feel it in our muscles, the panting after every choreographed number, the added padding around the waist like cushions every time the movement requires us to bend, the additional effort to hold a sustained note a steady pianissimo...even though it's been a decade past, the passion is not lost on our years and careers, the energy to the fingertips, the performance bravado, stage presence and the beautiful harmonies still blend together perfectly... "...lumilipad ang puso ko sa awit na aking tangay..."

The Aberdeen International Youth Festival 2010 The Aberdeen International Youth Festival (AIYF) in Aberdeen, Scotland " brings together and presents the best young performers and performing companies . It is a unique multi-arts event and has a reputation for attracting some of the finest young dance companies, classical dance academies, youth orchestras, bands and music ensembles from around the world. " It is an annual festival that I have been privileged to be a part of twice - in the years 2000 and 2003. :)

The UP Concert Chorus are coming home They're back from their international concert tour and are gearing to show everyone what makes them awesome...

Payapang Daigdig During last year's concert , our conductor asked me and another UPCC Alumna, Tita Ritzi to share the solo for the Christmas song "Payapang Daigdig". It had been a long time since I last sang with the UPCC then and so I was really honored to have been asked. This year though, I'm not sure if I will be able to make it. I'm bummed about that. But we'll see how it turns out. Hopefully I still get to go. :) In the meantime, here are the lyrics to "Payapang Daigdig" .

Find reyjr Allora! Allora! Allora! Text message exchange: Reyjr: "Ciao tutti famiglia Pizzocchero e Buon compleanno per Papa Angelo! Tanti bacci per tutti!" Pizzocchero: "Ciao Rey, Papa Angelo dice mille mille grazie, qui a Cascine tutto OK, spero che anche li state tutti bene, abbiamo una casa nuova ti aspettiamo per vederla." Reyjr: "Sono molto felice di leggere il suo messagio! Amerei vedere la nuova casa. :D Tutto e buono qui anche. La manco, il mio amore a tutti." No, I don't speak Italian (un pocississimo!), I used this website to translate: http://ets.freetranslation.com/  and I'm not expecting a machine translation to be perfect but what the heck, I still get the message across. I'm sharing this to show that even though you are miles and miles apart and don't speak the same language, keeping in touch with friends is possible...

I'm inviting you all to see this play, a perfect pre-Christmas show for the whole family. Oblates of St. Joseph –Philippine Province  with Music Theater Foundation, Philippines presents "Song of Joseph”   A musical on the life, love, and death of St. Joseph Playdates: November 17, 18, 19 and 20, 2009 at 7PM Location: Meralco Theater, Ortigas Avenue, Quezon City, PhilippinesAdmission: Orchestra P 2,000.00 Loge P 1 ,000.00 Balcony P 500.00 For ticket inquiries please call: ( 02 ) 7252044 / 09175047694 / 09177583710

Hello my dear readers (hehe). I was giving myself a head ache trying to think of a topic for a new post when I realized i don't need one.  Lol. It's a personal blog after all - My Past Life So, I'm still in Batangas and do not have a scanner here nor the photos from my past life that I would love to share with you. Yes, my past life - the more exciting one - or rather, the more blog worthy one? I had the life of a celebrity (lol, not really), or a super hero (is there a difference?) - finishing schoolwork then making a dash and a costume change in a phone booth (or a taxi cab) to make it to the next concert. Voila!   While still with the UPCC , I sang "Sana Ngayong Pasko" solo for Mel and Jay's Christmas Special (long before it became Mel and Joey!), I shared the stage with the late Fernando Poe, Jr. when he received his Lifetime Achievement Award at the FAMAS (I have a newspaper clipping to prove it too), shared a song with premier Classical mezzo-so...

For all Filipinos who have opened their homes and wallets to help our kababayans pick up and start again after the devastation of Ondoy, THANK YOU. Let the rebuilding continue. F or the benefit of Typhoon Ondoy victims in the Gawad Kalinga Village in Sitio Pajo, Brgy. Baesa in Quezon City, ALL85 presents Maestro Ryan Cayabyab , together with the Ryan Cayabyab Singers (RCS) in "ALL85 GOES GK!", Nationbuilders 25 years after. The concert, originally scheduled on Oct 3, was moved to Oct 17 because of the devastation of back to back typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. The show must go on - and it does on Saturday, October 17, 8pm at the Music Museum, Greenhills...

A Theme Thursday Post "Each morning I get up with the sun..." Below is a video of the UP Concert Chorus performing a medley of Gershwin's songs, taken during one of our concerts in Norway way back in the year 2000. I remember that the stage was huge, the lights and the sound systems were perfect - and the audience was amazing. We even had Norweigian visitors we met at a festival that we attended earlier that year.

  One of the many stops of the USA leg of the 2000 Millennium Tour of the UP Concert Chorus was St. Louis, Missouri . It was a short stay, just a couple of days, and a couple of concerts, but we managed to squeeze in a trip to that giant steel arch they call The Gateway Arch ....

Even though we don't celebrate it here in the Philippines, this traditional Irish blessing has a very special meaning for me. When I was on tour around USA and Europe with my college choir, we would sing this blessing everytime before we leave a tour stop. We usually stayed with locals at every stop, sharing wonderful moments and memories during our short stay. Every place that we left was a sad goodbye to the friends we made, sometimes it was goodbye for good. We often sang this around hugs and tearful goodbyes, CLICK HERE AND PLAY THE SONG >>> An Irish Blessing by the UP Concert Chorus May the road rise to meet you May the wind be always at your back May the sunshine warm upon your face The rain fall soft upon your fields And until we meet again Until we meet again May God hold you in the palm of hand...

Last night I was Googling "UP Concert Chorus", more out of habit than anything else, and found my old blogsite on Xanga. My first post was on Saturday, March 27, 2004. Wow. At the time I was, 22 and still in college (ha!), I was with Liz for 1 year, I was President of the UP Concert Chorus, and we were preparing for a 3 week tour of Germany, Italy and France scheduled later that year... We had performances left and right, twice a week rehearsals for the coming tour. Going on tour with the UPCC was really the highlight of my college life. My first tour in 2000 was my first time (ever) to be away from home for more than a week. I was 18 (and young and innocent haha!) and when you're touring the world at that age, there's just so much to learn and so many things to see. You could say that my first tour really globalized my perception, it opened the world to me, literally! My second tour in 2003 was my toughest but most exciting and most memorable of the three. First, be...

Yes I know it's only September. :p I was checking the CCAFI Blog email when I saw a blog entry by UPCC alumnus and composer/arranger extraordinaire Manong Nhick Pacis (now based in the US). He posted a recording of a song called "Bisperas ng Pasko" on his Multiply page. He had this song recorded way back in 2000 (or 2001, not sure) when I was still kinda new with UPCC. Some of the members brought me to that "bara-bara" recording and I actually sang on it! (I sing the first few lines with Mon T.) Here is the link>> http://npacis.multiply.com/music/item/6 but you have to sign up with multiply before you can play it. :p hehe. Enjoy!

Crap. I've been going through some of my friends' blogs and, not surprisingly, they have been updating regularly for the past few weeks...gah... and I haven't. I had actually planned to blog about the giant (giant!) spider I confronted (and eventually vanquished!) in my bathroom in Batangas on that fateful night when I arrived late and tired... I was also going to blog about my new car (MY new car! still brings a smile to my face to say that! haha!) which I picked up from Honda just last week. It's a 2007 Honda Civic 1.8 S Automatic. I hope the license plate will arrive by Christmas (please make it my Christmas gift!) so I can drive it to Batangas on the 26th... I also wanted to blog about the UPCC, some exciting news about a Switzerland tour and a competition, American shows putting choirs on the forefront and into the mainstream (google Clash of the Choirs and MTV Show Choir), and some less than exciting news about losing momentum and losing members... Of course I a...

A few days ago, a friend of mine (Ms. Q) received a message on her Multiply saying that she's ugly and it came from a guy (Mr. A) who used to be a trainee in our school organization but quit because of personal reasons (ehem..). After much discussion on Ms. Q's site how Mr. A is a loser and hypocrite, etc., Mr. A apologized and claimed that his account was hacked into and that he wasn't the one who wrote on Ms. Q's multiply site. End of story. The reason I'm blogging about it is this: Ms. Q sent me an SMS about the alleged message on her site and said, "To think ikaw ang nagpahirap sa kanya, at hindi ako!" In a way, that IS true... and so this got me to thinking, how many people out there would send me a hate message if they could, all those trainees who quit because of me? Off the top of my head, I know only about 4 people ("Hindi ako babalik habang andyan pa si..!!!"), but there could be others. So, I thought, had my strict, perfectionist appro...

07/12 - This bird won't budge. It just won't. Then after a few minutes, it pooped then flew away. It must've been too shy to do its business while i was there. Haha! 07/21 - The UP Concert Chorus bulletin board. Haha! Memories. I visited them last Saturday. They were rehearsing some choreography for their upcoming UPBeat Concert. I remember those times when I was the one leading choreography rehearsals, tough but fun. I will be watching on August 11 with my gf and also former UPCC, Liz, and also with a few more UPCC Alumni. 07/25 - (One of) Bryan's send off party(-ies). This one at the Ponte Fino Hotel with the MF Finance Dept. Bryan (who is also one of my housemates and badminton buddies) is the guy I'm pointing at. He's off to the land of the merlion to earn loads of Sing dollars and maybe learn a thing or two about GSAP. See you in December Don Bryan! o7/26 - They say there's a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. I still have to check, but this looks pr...