Muni-Muni

sleepless in Manila

2006-12-20T02:42:00.000+08:00

It's a few days before Christmas, and I am totally sleepless this morning. I tried to sleep at about midnight, then it was already 230am, and now I have to prepare to go to the Misa de Gallo at Project 8 at 4am, where my parish choir is singing. As usual, I will be totally knocked out once I come back home at around 7am, except that this time AILM is having its christmas party at 10am. Let's see what will happen, coz I usually sleep after misa de gallo all the way till 12nn.

Because of these irregular hours, I haven't done any Christmas shopping at all. And Christmas is just six days away! I'm deathly afraid of not being able to buy anything for the pamangkins... I must go out one of these days.

Problem is, we still have a concert on the 23rd... I'm beginning to hate these Christmas concerts. It's the same repertoire year after year. haaaaayyy...

This is probably the first time I'm not feeling Christmas-y at all. Quite depressing actually. I don't know what to do, and I don't have the energy to do anything at all. I'm very lethargic at the moment, preferring to stay at home and make butingting, while the season passes me by. Usually, I'm always excited in trying to buy gifts , putting up the tree, and playing Christmas carols. Not this year. And the problem is, I don't know why.

Cancer

2006-08-20T22:56:00.000+08:00

I've just received the most depressing news that one of the Philippine Madrigal Singers alumni, Jenny Ileto-Severino, is battling cancer with chemotherapy. I really hope she gets well.

It seems to me that there are less and less people dying of natural causes, and more people dying of cancer. Sometimes even if you are a very healthy person, you will be stricken with one type of cancer or another. I often wonder: isinumpa na ba tayo ng Diyos? Because of our profligate ways? Sigh... we can only hope for the best, and pray like we've never prayed before.

High Blood Pressure

2006-04-18T17:48:00.000+08:00

150/100. That's my "normal" blood pressure nowadays. I'm overweight. I think I have to discipline myself into eating less meat and more veggies, or less carbs and more everything else. And start some aerobic exercise. *sigh*

Bought a blood pressure monitor to hourly monitor my blood pressure. The price is enough to elevate it to new highs! Joke. Actually quite reasonable. Around 3,450 pesos, by Omron. Automatic inflation. Ok lang.

And bought a new toy! hehehe... will see first what I can do with it, then I'll tell you all about it.

Easter Vigil

2006-04-16T23:07:00.000+08:00

This is the third year where I committed myself to sing and play (kulang na lang dance) for the Easter Vigil Mass in Project 8, where I grew up. We have a small church in a quasi-parish, called the Holy Family Church, in G.S.I.S. Village. For the past two years, I have undertaken to sing all the Responsorial Psalms (five of them, shortened version), and the Exultet, and play keyboard for all the other parts of the mass. It's really fantastic to experience a mass in which a lot of parts are being sung by the celebrant (not this year, si Father Rey walang tono, sabi niya, so he refuses to sing), choir, cantor and congregation. But it's soooo tiring after the whole thing is over! I swear, it's even more challenging than some concerts I have had with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra at the CCP! It's because of all those responsorial psalm chants, where you have to fit words into the chant melodic line, and you have to find out where those word accents are, and how it will all fall into place, where word accent and musical phrasing meet. A lot of people say that my musicality is intuitive, so it is very hard for me to express in writing here, what I actually mean, musically speaking. Pasensya na.

Tomorrow, it's back to work, and meetings, and rehearsals and all that. Vacation's over! What vacation? I really need to get away from it all one of these days. Sigh...

Good Friday 2006

2006-04-14T19:15:00.000+08:00

Today is Good Friday. I sang the part of Jesus in the singing (chanting) of the St. John's Passion at the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John (Episcopalian) along E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd., right inside the compound containing St. Luke's Hospital and Trinity College. Although the part is easy, it is still very baffling for me with regards interpretation. Should I sing it loud, or soft? Should I modulate my voice, to sound like a king, or a humble person? All these thoughts are going through my mind as I sing the part. Even while singing it, I feel so totally unworthy that I am actually singing HIS part. Parang feeling ko pari dapat ang kumanta (well, pari dapat ang kumanta, pero inassign na nila sa akin ang role na ito every year since the late 90's). May lumalapit naman sa akin afterwards, saying they were touched by my singing, and I don't even know how to react to that. A ewan. Let's see what will happen next year.

O ye of little faith

2006-04-08T20:11:00.000+08:00

The Swedish embassy gave my passport back to me, saying I could hold on to it for my travel to Japan on April 21-24, then give it back to them on the 25th. In the meantime, my papers for application for Schengen visa will still proceed. Hallelujah! Thank you Lord for all your help!

Conducted the music for the funeral of Jamby Madrigal's dad, Don Antonio Madrigal, this morning at the Sto. Domingo Church. Call was at 9am, in time for the 10am funeral. I arrived before 9, only to be told that there was a wedding taking place, and therefore we could not rehearse. At 10 o'clock, we learned that there was ANOTHER wedding going to take place, and so we waited for that to be finished too. The funeral mass started around 11:30am, at which point the only way we were tolerating the long wait was that our sense of humor was still intact. But some of the musicians and singers (Madrigal Singers sang) haven't eaten breakfast (and lunch of course), and so when the funeral mass ended at about 1240 noontime, in about 37 degree Celsius heat, we dissipated faster than you could say, "Ite missa est". The mass was about 75 percent Latin, and the music was heavenly, with parts of Mozart's Requiem, a lot of Gregorian chants, and Ave Maria Bach-Gounod and Panis Angelicus and the Russian Kontakion. Madz sang Angeli Dei, which rose to a hair raising crescendo just as the body was being led out. Perfect timing! In the end, it was probably all worth it.

Visa

2006-04-05T13:00:00.000+08:00

I just came back from the Japanese embassy to get my visa for my April 21-24 visit to Tokyo to conduct the performance of the Gaia Philharmonic Chorus. Next problem: Schengen. Actually not a problem of acquiring, more a problem of time. Schengen visas usually take all of 10-15 working days to process. And of course April 21 is just two weeks away! I have to have my passport back on April 20, or else...!!

Why, oh why do these things happen to me? As if the tension in my work is not enough! Oh well,... bahala na si Batman. Will exert every effort to convince various embassies to expedite my visa.

Hectic week

2006-04-04T15:40:00.000+08:00

Last week was one of the most hectic in my life. I went to Japan to rehearse the Gaia Philharmonic Choir, for 4 days, Friday to Monday, and arrived back in Manila Monday night. The next day was the start of my annual choral conducting workshop, and this year we had the greatest number of participants, numbering 65 conductors. I had to give lectures starting at 8:30 every morning, all the way till 5pm. After which, I had to host daily evening concerts in connection with the workshop. Chiang Kai Shek College Youth Choir, AILM Chorale (which I conducted), UP Concert Chorus, UE Chorale, Ateneo Chamber Singers (which I conducted) and UST Singers all gave fantastic concerts. On top of all these, I managed to attend the wedding of the daughter of a very dear friend, and conducted members of the Global Orchestra and the Madrigal Singers last Friday afternoon. And don't forget rehearsals of the Ateneo Chamber Singers Thursday night (after the concert!) and last Sunday afternoon, plus playing for the Mass in Project 8 (parents' house located there) on Sunday evening... my body screamed with fatigue after all that.

But it seems I'm destined not to rest: starting yesterday Monday, we have everyday rehearsals of the AILM Chorale, all the way till just before we leave for Europe on May 4. Then it's a one month tour of Sweden, Netherlands and Germany, before coming back on June 8, in time for classes to start, all the way till end of the semester in October, by which time the Ateneo Chamber Singers leave for Europe for the Polyfollia Festival in France and Tolosa Competition in Spain, coming back in time for second semester to start, ending in March 2007, when it is time again to start the choral conducting workshop!!

Oh well, it's probably better than no work at all... of course, during the semester I have about four travels to Hongkong, Xiamen, Germany and South Korea, giving workshops and adjudicating choral competitions.

When it rains, it pours...

Freedom of Expression

2006-02-08T01:24:00.000+08:00

Denmark and other European countries are now being pilloried because the press in those countries published some cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed in a very unflattering light. Although the governments themselves cannot be blamed because they do not control what comes out of the press (freedom of expression and all that bull), I find the attitude of the press in those countries to be without parallel in tactlessness and lack of taste.

Don't tell me that they did not anticipate what will happen if they published such provocative cartoons in their newspapers, because if they did really not anticipate what will happen, then my regard for their supposedly superior intelligence (aside from their superiority in everything else) has just hit rock bottom. The stupidity is just too much to ignore. I hope it doesn't escalate any more than what is currently happening.

I'm baaaaack!

2005-11-20T23:10:00.000+08:00

I open this renewed blog with one of my favorite pictures: Mama Bichik in her small bathroom. Bilib kasi ako kay Bichik for her discipline in life, with the result that she can do anything she puts her heart into, no compromises. But of course hindi ko pa nasasabi sa kanya yan! How typical of me, kalat masyado... kaya siguro I admire her.

Sige na nga, I will start posting again. It's sooo difficult to find the time and energy to post blogs... I don't know what to say, how to say it, I run out of thoughts, etc etc... ang daming excuses noh! Ok fine, here I am again.

I know nobody reads my blogs anyway.

So what have I been doing lately? Just finished this harang at Brent Mamplasan, conducting the APAC festival choir. We had a great time, singing Ward Swingle's Organ Fugue, Ryan's Paraiso, Eric Whitacre's Cloudburst, King's Singers arrangement of I'm a train, Les Miz' One more day, and Joyful, Joyful from Sister Act 2. I had a great time teaching them the songs, although mej madugo ang scheduling: since last Thursday (till Saturday), I would wake up at 4:30 a.m. to be in Mamplasan at 7:30, so we could start at 8. I rehearsed with them till 2:30p.m., and would usually drive back to Manila at around 5 to 6 p.m. SLEX was no problem, but EDSA was another matter. Haaaayyy...

Tomorrow, I have to prepare the Miriam College Glee Club for their debut solo performance on December 9, and the thing is, I'm not available at all on that date! I have said yes to do jury duty at an international competition in KL, and I'm supposed to leave on the 9th. Haaaayyy... hatiin ko na lang kaya katawan ko. Ang hirap kasing magsabi ng NO, kaya hayan... my musical life is now one big schedule conflict. Sana maka-leave ako for one year, gusto ko lang tumunganga sa America, just be a couch potato for a long time. Bad idea. And it wouldn't happen until about 2008 at the earliest, so forget it about it, ika nga ni Mareng Melanie.

Deepa! Ang ganda ng blog mo! Sabi sa yo hindi ako marunong sumulat e. O well, bahala na si Batman. I hope this is not ningas cogon on my part.

Valentine sadness

2005-02-15T16:51:00.000+08:00

I was so sad the whole day today when I found out that one of my former students at the Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music, Rex Evangelista, was killed in a robbery/holdup just a few meters away from his house in Proj. 2, Quezon City. The last time I saw Rex was during the performance of Te Deum with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in November last year. These leave takings are really very painful for me, so much so that as much as possible I don't go to wakes and funerals if I can help it. With Rex, I can't help it. I just pray that he is with our Lord already, and that his killers will be caught.

There were also several bombings throughout the country today, Valentine's Day 2005. When will the terrorists know that it would take more, much more than their pitiful bombings to scare the Filipino nation? Tayo pa, na napagdaanan na ang lahat! Bawat mikrobyo ng buhay ay nakuha na natin, bawat lason, bawat dumi, bawat kabulukan sa gobyerno at sa moralidad... nadaanan na yan ng Pinoy! Tapos papakitaan nyo kami ng binobombang bus?!? Pakiabot nga ng patis...

2004-08-13T18:41:00.000+08:00

Hail Mary the Queen Children's Choir during the winner's night concert at the 2004 Bremen Choral Olympics. That's Tess Vizconde conducting.
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Olympics, Shmolympics

2004-08-13T18:28:00.000+08:00

Waiting for Olympic opening ceremonies to start. The usual fanfare, etc. Will want to catch it live, just in case "something" happens... morbid no? Have you seen opening of World Choral Olympics? Not as elaborate, but also well represented, in terms of countries and number of participants. You should see the South African delegations, kaloka, each choir numbering about 70 or 80 singers at least! Monstrous! But very good performances.

There was one Filipino choir which won an Olympic champion gold, the Hail Mary the Queen Children's Choir. Was able to witness their awarding ceremonies, including the raising of the Philippine flag and the playing of the Philippine national anthem. Wow! I guess if you were there, you would want to petition our president to give that 5 million they give to gold medalists in the olympics, to choirs who already are WINNING golds in the choral olympics. It's not the same, I know, but with the miserable state this country is in, might as well celebrate the positive things that are happening, right? Except that nobody knows it, kasi we're not "malakas" sa media. Well, that's about to change! Kasi galit na galit na ako!

BTW, ignore the time and date on these blogs. There's no shortcut way to change them. GP, help!

What am i doing here?

2004-08-12T00:05:00.000+08:00

Was so intrigued by GP's blogspot, decided to do the same. I mean, do you think other people would want to know my thoughts on some things? YEEEEEESSSS!!! I've seen blogs and I've seen blogs. Mine's pretty much conservative. A mixture of daily ramblings of a demented conductor who loves to play Sim City 2004 (rather than study choral scores), and a little bit of sage advice to budding (and bading) young conductors (kasi he feels old na, eh!). Sooooo,.... here we go.

2004-08-11T12:21:00.000+08:00

Whaaaa.....??? What time is this thing set in? Hawaii? Sorry, last one's supposed to be 9:05 PM, and now it's 9:16 PM. Whole day at home, nursing a flu, caught it from one of the Madz alumni while giving a concert (actually 3 concerts) last week... but much better now than yesterday, when fever was high, and... well, you know, typical flu... damned sick... very inconvenient. But good for taking stock into how one actually abuses one's body (flying to Germany, then giving workshops and a concert in Taiwan, then giving 3 concerts in one week 2 days after arriving back in Manila). So, I'm now going to create another city in Sim City. And probably study a score or two. If I feel like it. And I don't.

2004-08-10T21:43:00.000+08:00

Black hair in a sea of white: judging the male choir category at the choral olympics in Bremen, Germany.
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