Gilopez kabayao biography of barack obama

The Pianist and I
SCENES FROM 40 YEARS OF HER ART AND LIFE
by Pablo A. Tariman

I first met pianist Cecile Licad at the Cagsawa Church Ruins in Daraga, Albay one day in August of 1975 when she was only 14.

That was the year she performed at the St. Agnes Academy in Legazpi City.

I got married in the same Albay tourist attraction eight months earlier when I was 26.

But on the night I first heard her with a PNR train hooting in the middle of Ravel’s Sonatine, I also got married to her music.

It’s been forty years since I met her in Albay and here I am am, a 67-year old music fan, suddenly reflecting on our first meeting forty years ago.

I recall that I was carried away by the performance of a then 14-year old Cecile that I made a radio program out of that recorded performance on a cassette in one radio station.

My first Licad interview and came out on the front page of the Bicol Chronicle and that recorded performance would always begin and end my day in Albay. (Now I am in frantic search of that Jurassic cassette which probably perished along with my first cellphone the size of a short bond paper.)

In the late 70s when I was still based in Albay, I got to see CCP concerts through complimentary train rides courtesy of then PNR head Nicanor Jimenez, father of PDI editor Letty J. Magsanoc.

What were the highlights of those 40 years of life listening to her music?

I was able to monitor not just her music but her personal life as well.

I got to meet her husband, Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses (gold medalist in the Tchaikovsky Competition) and I toured them not just in Manila but in Bacolod, Zambales, Tagaytay and Cebu, among others.

I have a ringside view of her as a mother and I remember attending a CCP rehearsal of a Tchaikovsky concerto with her carrying a stroller and feeding bottles for her young Otavio.

I stood helpless in her hotel room with her asking me h

Solo recital tonight, June 11, 7 pm at the Philamlife Theater

by Pablo A. Tariman

Outside of music, he indulges in a few things to recharge. “I usually go to the movies with my friends, cook, walk in the park, go to the beach, or hit the gym.,” he says.

Now a holder of a Master of Music in Piano Performance degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Antonio Pompa-Baldi, (a silver medalist at the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition), Salonga is presently continuing his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music as an artist diploma candidate.

He reveals a school routine crammed with programmed activities. “When I was still doing a degree program, my days are always fully booked with classes with very little time to focus on my practicing. I value any free time I can get knowing that those are just the only time I can practice for that day. My schedule now is more flexible . I start my day going to the gym, practice three hours in the afternoon and three hours at night. There is definitely more time to refresh my mind and body.”

Eight years after twice winning the top prize of the National Music Competition for Young Artists and seven years after graduating as a music scholar of the Philippine High School for the Arts, pianist Oliver Salonga has learned to face challenges as they come.

Earlier, he won a concerto competition in Florida while studying at Lynns University as a full music scholar. Two years ago, he won the gold medal in the 2008 Joenju International Piano Competition in South Korea and last March, he emerged as one of the top twenty competitors in the 2010 Hilton Head International Piano Competition in South Carolina after screening 160 applicants.

Relates Salonga of his latest foray into competition: “I had lots of fun performing. But what I learned more was communicating with the

Ramon Magsaysay Award

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate the late Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel Prize.The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.

Every year the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation grants the prize to Asian individuals and organizations for achieving excellence in their respective fields. The awards are given in six categories:

Government Service
Public Service
Community Leadership
Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts
Peace and International Understanding
Emergent Leadership

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Magsaysay_Award

List of Ramon Magsaysay awardees


Government Service


1958 Jiang Menglin - Taiwan
1959 C D Deshmukh - India, Jose Aguilar - Philippines
1961 Raden Kodijat - Indonesia
1962 Francesca Reyes-Aquino - Philippines
1963 Akhtar Hameed Khan - Pakistan
1964 Yukiharu Miki - Japan
1965 Puey Ungpakorn - Thailand
1966 Fon Saengsingkaew - Thailand
1967 Keo Viphakone - Laos
1968 Lee Kwoh-ting - Taiwan
1969 Hsu Shih-chu - Taiwan
1971 Ali Sadikin - Indonesia
1972 Goh Keng Swee - Singapore
1973 Balachandra Sekhar - Malaysia
1974 Hiroshi Kuroki - Japan
1975 Mohammed Sufian - Malaysia
1976 Elsie Tu - British in Hong Kong
1977 Bejamin Galstaun - Indonesia
1978 Dato Shahrum bin Yub - Malaysia
1979 Raden Wasito - Indonesia
1980 Muhammed Alias - Malaysia
1981 Prawes Wasi - Thailand
1982 Arturo Alcaraz - Philippines
1983 Su Nan-cheng - Taiwan
1984 Ta-You Wu - Taiwan
1985 Tan Sri Noordin - Malaysia
1986 Abdul Sattar Edhi - Pakistan
1987 Haji Hanafiah - Malaysia
1988 Miriam Santiago - Philippines
1989 Zakiah Hanum - Malaysia
1991 Alfredo R.A. Bengzon - P