...and then she turned 5!

How do you feel when you see your only daughter, the youngest of your brood of four growing rapidly before your very eyes?

How do you respond when she becomes unsurprisingly more precocious…a tad more curious about the world around her?

How do you react, when your darling baby, day by day, becomes more of a little young girl than the toddler you have been used to all these years?

I know Faith just turned 5 last March 12. But since time flies so fast these days, it seems all our kids are growing up so soon!

Just a couple of weeks ago, our eldest child, Junior turned 18, a milestone age for children in many societies. A question continuously rang on my mind. When did they grow up so fast?!

Faith loves to help out at home

That’s why I’ve always believed that parents like me should never take things for granted. We should always be there for our kids. In the blink of an eye, they have their own lives to live and, by God’s grace, their own respective families to nourish and guide.

Mall rat at the Trinoma

I’ve tried hard to resist to wish (if God would grant it!) to make them grow slower. That would have merely been a selfish notion. Rather, I pray to God that we will always remain to be a strong family, loving to one another as we mature in life.

Faith loves to sing (as the rest of our family)

Faith like any regular kid is developing her own set of good and bad traits. In the long run, I just hope that she sustains her loving disposition, an attribute that has truly endeared her to us.

From your loving family…..happy 5^th birthday, Faith!

26th Sampung Mga Daliri, Atbp. (A 10 Piano Concert)

Fernando Jr. just turned 18 last Feb. 25.

A few days later, he was singing in front of hundreds of people at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) Main Theater.

It wasn’t exactly a solo concert or major recital for my eldest son. But who’s complaining? So what if it was a minor itsy bitsy teeny weenie role as part of a 500 plus ensemble of music students, alumni and faculty of the University of Sto. Tomas’ Conservatory of Music. The fact remained he sang to a multitude of music patrons at the country’s premier cultural venue, the prestigious CCP. It was a humble achievement, but a noteworthy feat nonetheless.

Started in 1984 by the late National Artist Ernani Cuenco, last February 28 marked the 26th presentation of “Sampung Mga Daliri, Atbp.” by the UST Conservatory of Music. As in previous editions, it mainly featured music played on ten pianos alongside performances of various musical groups of the Conservatory such as the Percussion Ensemble, the Rondalla Ensemble, the Guitar Ensemble, the Jazz Band, Pop’Era Chorus, Coro Tomasino, the Liturgikon Vocal Ensemble, the Wind Orchestra, the UST Symphony Orchestra and the Chorus classes of the Conservatory.

The audience was entertained with renditions of classical, contemporary and native music which included masterpieces from Albeniz, Liszt, Katchaturian, Gershwin, Rodgers, Hammerstein, Schoenberg and home grown talents Ryan Cayabyab and Nonong Pedero.

Odette and I entered the concert hall a few minutes late, spending quite a long time at the ticket line. The balcony’s steep design was quite disconcerting at first; leaving you with a feeling you’d fall off to the lodge seats below. We moved to seats with a better view beside the ledge itself. The unsettling feeling a bit subsided as time went along, but one really had to be careful in those high places. I regret leaving behind my binoculars as faces couldn’t easily be recognizable at that distance. On the other hand, the manual camera I remembered to bring wasn’t allowed inside the theater during the concert so I had to leave it at the security desk. Tough luck. So all the pictures I took had to be post concert ones.

I was specifically impressed with the interpretations of the guitar classical piece “Sevilla” from “Suite Espanola”, the jazzy interpretation of “Summertime”, the melodious “My Favorite Things”, the creative inclusion of up tempo beat modern songs in Pop’era breakers (which included the Korean girl band hit song ‘Nobody’). I felt quite nostalgic hearing a rendition of Pedero’s “Saranggola ni Pepe” evoking a time when life was a whole lot simpler and seen through the eyes of childlike innocence.

This year’s grand finale was the best part of course. A medley of songs from Schoenberg’s Broadway hit “Les Miserables” was sang by a composite group of Conservatory alumni, faculty, chorus classes and ensembles accompanied by the delightful music of UST’s Symphony Orchestra and 10 pianists from the piano department. Junior was a member of one of those Chorus classes. A minor part. Again I say it was a humble achievement, but a noteworthy feat nonetheless.

CCP’s Main Lobby





Proud parents of a budding music major

“Do you hear the people sing…?” I think I did.

Speaking on behalf of the UST Conservatory of Music, Dean Raul Sunico, wrote in his message that they hope the event “will bring music closer to the people” as well as offer “performing opportunities and inspiration” to many of their participants. From what I saw and heard, I believe the concert did just that.

By the looks of it, the event is only the first of a long array of school related performances for my son. As Junior hones his skills as a music student majoring in percussion, I have high hopes for his musical future.