To CCP and Beyond

Their discipline is the silent note in every song.

The Loboc children's choir, now considered as perhaps one of the best choirs in the world after having bested 12 choirs and garnering the highest point average of 97.5 at the Barcelona International Folksongs Festival, teamed up with the Pundaquit Virtuosi at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last January 6th for a fundraising concert entitled Light in a Million Mornings. Having missed their previous performances twice already (thanks to: [1] botching a long-planned trip to Bohol with Boni and Ella, and [2] missing their special concert at the San Carlos Seminary [where I was supposed to pose as a priest in order to gain entry to the said event!]), I decided it was high time I caught them performing and heard their voices "so pure and angelic, burst[ing] through the gathering silence and darkness of the tropical evening". When I saw their posters all over the office (and in some areas by Salcedo and Legazpi Streets), I immediately SMS'd the contact number for ticketing and booked me four tickets--one for me, one for Pink, and two for Sheila and Daniel.

Excitedly, all being lovers of chorale singing, the four of us met at Figaro beside CCP right after work. Sheila and I met first to grab a quick meal and then headed for Roxas Boulevard. It was a Friday and that was our TGIF gimmick. How cultured was that?! ;) We all queued up in anticipation, only to be frustrated at how high up in the theater we were positioned. At 300 bucks, all we got were four sorry balcony 2 seats; too bad for Pink and Sheila who were both kinda acrophobic. We all sat nervously (at the front row seats, so we could literally see the balcony below us!), waiting for the performance to start and hoping that there were no earthquakes waiting to happen.

The performance started promptly at 7pm. We were instantly in awe of the angelic voices, so perfect pitched and delicate, that for a few moments, we completely forgot the fear of heights. Their renditions of folk songs like Leron Leron Sinta brought back memories of my childhood.

I remember, being a high-pitched little boy at age 9, I was a soprano--yes, I KNOW it's a classification of WOMEN's vocal range, you dumb ass--in our school choir in Orion. That very same piece was the one that helped make us bag the grand prize at the 1986 National Music Competition for Young Artists Children's Choir Division...which qualified us to join the NAMCYA festival at the CCP, together with all other champions from different regions of the country. We were so proud in our waiter-like white longsleeves, yellow vest and black slacks ensemble, performing the same piece for the nth time to listeners from around the country. Even prouder were our parents who finished rolls and rolls of 35mm films--yes, digital cameras were still unheard of those days!

In high school, I "transformed" from soprano to tenor. Yep, still high vocal range, but at least more masculine that time around. And then in college, after passing the auditions as a Tenor 2/Baritone for the UP Singing Ambassadors, I knew I found my "real" voice...only for it to be reclassified yet again. After failing to reach high notes during vocalizations and rehearsals that night I lost my voice from a UAAP match earlier that afternoon, I tried out for Bass. I made the cut. From that night forward, I have always been a Bass 1/Baritone. And thanks to those vocal exercises, I can now confidently say that I have a sexy manly voice. Heh..heh...

By the time the performance ended, we were just either too tired from fighting the vertigo or too sleepy after being lulled by their divine singing (and the Pundaquit Virtuosi's, uhm, virtuosi), that we went on each other's ways and headed for home...with a CD of the Loboc Children's Choir in tow.

Barely one week later, I was invited by my friend Eugene, the musical director of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, to watch the PPO performance that following Friday night. He gave me four complimentary tickets, and so I tagged along the three musketeers Daniel, Sheila and Pink yet again. By mid-performance, we were already slightly bewildered, as the type of music that the PPO played was those types used in the musical scores of movies such as Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, and the likes. You get the idea: not the typical orchestral music you'd hear playing in your cd changer during your yoga sessions.

The thunderous and foreboding sound of the PPO's music made us all hungry, as if we were actually IN the filming of The Ten Commandments, that we decided to grab a bite at Figaro with Rome and his girlfriend. Over cups and cups of lattes, chamomile tea (playfully pronounced as tsa-moh-meel by me to the waitress), and milk, and plates of pesto, salad, and garlic bread, we laughed like hyenas over Tagalog Grossology. It was all good.

Now, having gone through two different performances yet very similar in terms of discipline, it made me think: why haven't I made singing into a career, or at the very least PSEUDO-career? Or, why haven't I even picked up a violin and learned how to play it??? "Not enough time" just doesn't cut it for me. I swear, I should start walking my talk (because I actually teach time management, for crying out loud), and actually MAKE time.

This summer, I am officially enrolling at UP Diliman College of Music for intensive 2-week classical voice lessons. I know I already have the timbre, but I bet I could use some fixin' and fine tuning. Can't wait. Lalala...lalala... ;)

With Loboc and Philharmonic checked on my CCP to-watch list, it's now ZsaZsa Zaturnnah or bust!