Celebrating 100 years of music

BY NICKIE WANG/ MANILA STANDARD TODAY

Taste in music is relative; a person may enjoy a kind of music that other people might consider as noise, but no matter how different types people define it, it all boils down to one single fact: it is a universal language.

When we talk about music, everyone can relate. Although each person would have different interpretations of a single musical piece, this fact alone proves that music has a great influence and can stir a range of emotion.

Operatic and classical music are genres that are much underappreciated especially by the younger music enthusiasts, but little do they know that the industry’s most talented musicians come from these genres.

One of the premier institutions that hone talents that would later become world-class music artists is the University of the Philippines. Celebrated choirs like the Philippine Madrigal Singers, the UP Concert Chorus, the UP Singing Ambassadors, and the UP Staff Choral are among the notable groups from the university’s rich pool of music talents.

In a rare musical extravaganza staged on Nov. 21 at the UP Theater, the UP Alumni Association (UPAA) gathered almost 200 performers in a grand event to celebrate 100 Years of World-Class Music.

As one of the culminating events of the University of the Philippines’ centennial celebration, the musical directed by Behn Cervantes featured virtuoso performers like Evelyn Mandac, Noel Velasco, Frankie Aseniero, Camille Lopez-Molina, and Nolyn Cabahug.

Violinist Joseph Esmilla, flutist Sonny Yangco, and classical guitarist Lester Demetillo also performed with the orchestra of the UP College of Music.

Other artists featured were Dondi Ong, Ana Feleo, Aileen Cura, Jeanne Velasco-Vicars, Emelyn Santos, Joseph Olfindo, and Eric Ferrer.

100 Years of World-Class Music was also staged to honor distinguished music artist Evelyn Mandac who achieved milestones in the international music arena. The artist is a New York-based soprano who graduated magna cum laude at the UP College of Music. She has shared the stage with Joan Sutherland and has sung opposite world-renowned Placido Domingo in a full-length opera.

World-class talent

“People asked me if I was Europe trained, I said: ‘No, I was trained in the Philippines by our own singers.’ I am very proud of that,” Evelyn Mandac enthused in a recent interview with the Standard Today.

A native of Bukidnon, Mandac is the first Filipino singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. On the same venue, she has sung the lead in more than 20 operas and received standing ovations with her performances in Europe. Her illustrious career abroad spanned three decades before she retired in the 1980s.

As part of her passion in music, she converted her New York apartment, which she shares with husband Sanjoy Bhattacharia, into a studio where she teaches vocal techniques to students of various nationalities.

“Now I am just a teacher, before I had a career performing. I’m out of that in a way as I have devoted my time to teaching, it’s time for me to give in a different way. In the past six years, I’ve come at UP to give Master’s classes. I have my own studio called the Evelyn Mandac Studio,” the artist said.

Mandac started singing as a choir member at the age of 12. After her graduation at UP, she went to the US on a Fulbright travel grant. She then became a Rockefeller scholar at the Julliard School of Music where she received her Master’s Degree.

“I did my career starting with contemporary music. So when I was starting to be known as a contemporary interpreter, I said that I want to have my standard repertoire, too. So I told it to my manager. You know to get a manager right after college is one of the most difficult things to have,” the regal-looking soprano said.

Beyond music

Mandac’s talent is more recognized abroad as her career is based in New York. She considers hard work as her formula in making it to the international scene.

“I did not have to audition. Can you believe it? It’s like being there at the right time,” Mandac said as she narrated relating to her first stint as an operatic singer in New York.

“Talent... that is the most important thing that you need to have and then things will open up for you. But my advice to young singers or to any aspiring performers who want to have a career is to have a tremendous focus, discipline, hard work and passion—love for what you do because it’s going to be hard,” she articulated.

Aside from voice coaching, Mandac contributes her time extending assistance with Children inflicted with HIV. She also devotes some of her time as a major coordinator of “Mother Kitchen” for the homeless and senior citizen.

“I am active in doing selfless service which means I coordinate to feed the homeless. I would love to do that in the Philippines but again I don’t live here. That’s one of my sadness. I just come here once a year to visit my family and of course to give masters classes,” the soprano artist expressed.

The 68-year-old artist said that she is still learning music, and that she still sings everyday as she demonstrates to her students. In a candid conversation with the Standard Today, she revealed that if her life would be a song, it would be a love song.

“Love for life, love for music and love for being able to give of one self selflessly,” she said as if the words were a line in a ditty.

Evelyn Mandac was given special citation at the concert and some of her recordings were performed. Other music greats who were recognized at the event were Noel Velasco, UP Cherubim and Seraphim founder Flora Zarco Rivera and the late UP Concert Chorus director Rey Paguio.