I am Newsworthy in AIYF Aberdeen, Scotland!

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. :)

This year, the Opening Ceremonies for AIYF 2010 has just kicked off - welcoming groups including The Hungarian Dance Academy, the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, Pure Brass - one of UK’s top Brass Quintets, Cheremosh - a dance group from Canada, Doina Folk Ensemble from Romania, The Norwegian Girls Choir and so many more.

My AIYF Experience

I was then with the University of the Philippines Concert Chorus (UPCC) - my first time to go to Aberdeen was a mere 1 year after I joined the choir. It was a wonderful and memorable experience to be part of something like the AIYF - to meet other young people who were as passionate to the arts as we were - ballet dancers, theater groups, instrumentalists, choir singers, and orchestra players from Russia, Belarus, Norway, Hungary, Scotland, England, Africa, China, Iceland and numerous other places...

The UP Concert Chorus "Muling Dating" - A Homecoming Concert

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...

Watch the UP Concert Chorus Christmas Concert 2009

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".

Keeping in touch with the Pizzoccheros

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...

"Song of Joseph”, a wonderful pre-Christmas musical

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

It's a personal blog after all

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-soprano Janet Sabas-Aracama and the uber Ms. Nanette Inventor on a concert finale number, I've recorded back-up tracks for a couple of local artists plus one international Pinoy broadway artist, and have sung in numerous company events and high profile weddings. And I was still in the University then!

Oh, and I haven't mentioned the 3 International tours I joined...

The RCS for Typhoon Ondoy victims in GK Village

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.

For 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...

We (still) got rhythm - 9 years later!

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.

St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch

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....

An Irish Blessing: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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...

Googling "UP Concert Chorus"

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, because Liz and I had just gotten together a month before we left for the tour. They say the first few months are always the make or break period in any relationship, and yes it was difficult at times, but we made it through, and with a tighter relationship too. ;)

Second, I was UPCC Stage Manager and Soloist. It was not such a difficult job on tour since most places are already equipped with stages and lights, etc., (although there were times where we had to move altars and benches, and huge tables...) but I did manage to enjoy both, especially the latter one. Haha! Hey, after all, I am The Tenor. lol... (a private joke which came about during the time when a lot of UPCC Tenors left for the San Miguel Chorale and there were some shows where I was the ONLY tenor there, hence the title...)

My third and last tour, the 2004 tour was my most relaxed tour. Hehe. I was President of UPCC, and I was graduating the following year. It was a short 3-week tour during the semestral break, which means none of the homesick teenagers, and petty quarrels over nothing. We went to Bochum, Germany for the Acapella Festival where I got to sing "Ikaw Ang Lahat sa Akin" to this awesome audience (and I have a video!). We also went to Cascine San Pietro in Italy, where one of my dearest host families live, the Pizzocherros and the Sudatis. :D And finally we went to Paris. Yes, Paris. :D My only regret during the 2004 tour was that Liz couldn't go. :_(

Anyway, it's late and I better get to bed. I'll ramble more about it some other time. :p

Bisperas ng Pasko

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!

Of spiders, cars & choirs, and being a lazy blogger

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 also wanted to blog a Christmas wishlist (a 2-seater reading couch please :D)...
...and about our visit to Eastridge to visit our future resthouse...
...and about my horrendous 5-hour trip to Batangas...
...and about my first visit to Lola Oreng's grave...
...and so many other things.

I want to blog, but...
...sigh...

maybe later.

Moving On

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 approach to performance arts become so overbearing that trainees crumbled and quit under my tutelage? Lalim. Haha! I knew that I was strict. But I also knew that if you wanted to attain a certain standard of excellence in performance, you have to work hard for it. I had a lot of trainees who quit during the process, but there were those who survived their traineeship and became really good performers, and really loyal members.

The thing is, the stage is a cruel place: it will not show your audience how hard you practiced for your song, or how many sleepless nights you endured to memorize your dance. When you're on the stage, all that matters is what you do there and then. No, it's not fair, but nothing ever really is...

I am not trying to justify that I had done in the past, I know I hurt a lot of egos. But I do hope that they have all learned from their experience and moved on. Hopefully I won't receive any hate messages anytime soon!

Photographic Memory

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 promising!

:D

Weird Things About Me

There's so many I don't know where to start? Haha.Actually, I don't really know what IS weird about me? I don't think there's any. Do you?

If I blog weird things about myself, that would be saying that I have compared myself to the NORMAL and found myself to be ABNORMAL...hmm...

...but what IS normal? Are YOU normal? What IS the boundary of normalcy?For example, are people who sing in public considered weird? What if you're in the privacy of your home...but there are guests? What if you sing in the gym? (Last week, there was this guy at the gym with headphones on singing "I'm all out of love..." in full voice, mind you...) What if I sing really well, am I still weird?


WEIRD THING #1
Well, this first one is more of unique than weird really. I'm a singing engineer. Weird because there's not a lot of licensed Mechanical Engineers who would sing the way I do (or did in college). See, I was part of a choir. And I'm damn well proud of it. The University of the Philippines Concert Chorus.

I think it is weird because while my classmates were studying about Thermodynamics, I was feeling the heat transfer from the stage lights and the flash bulbs; while they were studying Fluid Dynamics, I was studying music dynamics (forte! fortissimo!); while they were taking apart the pieces of an internal combustion engine, I was putting together music pieces for the evening's practice...

wanna see a weird thing? check out our youtube vid, unscripted! this was supposed to be a farewell song for a group of friends from the US... (I'm doing the solo!)

And... 25!

It has been a tradition in my paperback journals that I begin a new chapter on a special occasion, be it an anniversary, a birthday...

It was my 25th Birthday last Sunday, so now I'm beginning a new "chapter" of my blogging on a different server! Moved to Blogger folks! Haha!