Former prizewinners of the National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA) were in the limelight again and the good news is that they have more performance opportunities now than their predecessors who -- without NCCA or CCP assistance --  had to spend close to half a million pesos before they could play with an  orchestra.

            Showcased last  August 2 at CCP Little Theater (8 p.m.) were winners in the violin and piano category namely Gabriel Paguirigan, Jimmy Tagala (protégé of virtuoso Gilopez Kabayao) and Jeline Oliva rendered  the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto No. 1, Wieniawski Violin Concerto No. 2 and Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2, respectively.

            They  were  accompanied by the PPO under the baton of Olivier Ochanine.

            On Saturday, August 11,  two-time  NAMCYA first prize winner Oliver Salonga in a solo recital at the  Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati City. . Salonga was earlier Schumann concerto soloist of the PPO in 2004 under the baton Ruggero Barbieri. He is also the first Filipino gold medalist in the Medal in 2008 Joenju International Piano Competition in South Korea.

            The latest competition update is that Asian musicians (notably Koreans) dominated the recently concluded 2012 William Kapell International Piano Competition in Maryland. Last Saturday, Yekwon Sunwoo   was declared first prize winner after an impressive rendering of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Center.  The only Filipino member of the international jury is Cecile Licad who was once invited to judge in the Chopin Competition many years back.


            Like it or not, we are a country of assorted prizewinners.

            Cecile Licad never joined those conventional competitions (except when she was still a kid when she was declared one of the prizewinners of the MSO competition) but she was the first Filipino to get the Leventritt Gold Medal that was also given earlier to Van Cliburn and Gary Graffman.

            Graffman was a regular Manila visitor in the 70s and 80s and Van Clburn (if you didn’t know it yet) was a gold medalist in the First Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow in 1958. To celebrate this musical feat, a group of music teachers and citizens from Fort Worth, Texas, created the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition which started in 1962. Two Filipino musicians – conductor Luis Valencia and Lucresia Kasilag – were once in the jury of this Texas-based competition.

            Tenor Noel Velasco was our first and last prizewinner of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition.

             Rowena Arrieta became the first Filipino laureate of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia by placing fifth in the same competition where Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses (father of Licad’s son, Otavio)   got the gold medal. However, Arrieta won first place in the Jose Iturbi Competition in Spain and the Frinna Auerbach in New York. Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz – who loves the title ‘multi-awarded’ in his biodata -- placed second in said competitions. Cruz is soloist of the newly formed ABS CBN Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Gerard Salonga  in its inaugural concert on August 18 at the BDO Francisco Santiago Hall.

            Many years back, violinist Carmencita Lozada became the first and last prizewinner of the Paganini Competition in Italy.  Iloilo-born pianist Maria Luisa Lopez Vito was also prizewinner (4^th) in the second Van Cliburn Competition where Radu Lupu of Rumania got the first place.

            Singapore-based Filipino pianist Albert Tiu was a first prize winner of the UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa, and (laureate) of international piano competitions in Calgary, Santander and Helsinski.

            It may be noted that Reynaldo Reyes and Raul Sunico now UST dean and CCP president) were also prizewinners of the Busoni Competition in Italy.

            Two years ago, Filipino tenor Rodell Rosel won the President's Prize and the People’s Choice Award at the Jose Iturbi Competition where our own Rowena Arrieta also won first place many years back.

            All these statistics tell us that Filipino musicians can compete with the best in the world. But did it ever occur to anyone that joining competitions can also do harm and that it may not be the best alternative for making a career in music?

            I know of one Filipino contestant who stopped his music lessons when he lost in a competition and -- if some stories were to be believed -- he became suicidal.

            After chronicling the musical career of prizewinners in the last 30 years, I can now say that not all prizewinners made a remarkable career. At least 60 per cent of prizewinners never really made a career as a regular concertizer but found equally rewarding job in the academe.

            On the whole, music teachers should stop putting nonsense on their pupils’ head that winning a competition is the crowning glory of a musician’s life. Competing is just a means to an end, not the be-all of a musician’s existence. At least one Filipino prizewinner is so obsessed with competing he founded a competition he called the “ultimate competition” dangling huge cash prizes that he hoped would attract the best talents. As it turned out, most of his students won and the rest of the winners were runner-ups in NAMCYA and other Manila competitions.

            A top prizewinner of the Paganini Competition in Italy, the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud in Paris, and the Tchaikovsky Competition in his homeland, among others, Russian violinist Vladimir Spivakov once told me he didn’t believe in competitions but that he had a kind word for it because it was the only way young people were given the chance to show what they have.

            Said he: “I know a great artist who only placed 7th in Brussels and that’s a reflection on the judges. Some artists who are equally good don’t find the competitions a place in which to show what they have. The ideal set-up would be to choose five equal winners and opening the door for them. We have examples of first prize winners who – in reality –are nothing.”

            Romanian diva Nelly Miricioiu, a grand prizewinner of the Maria Callas International Voice Competition, also said she didn’t believe in competing with other artists. “I am more comfortable competing with myself.” She will be heard at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on August 16 with the Linburgh Symphony Orchestra.

            A media observer of the recently concluded competition in Maryland also noted: “It's old hat, but worth noting again, that competitions do not necessarily produce star pianists. Few careers have been genuinely made by a competition triumph, so it is impossible to say what will happen to any of the 2012 winners. But they all struck me as serious, sincere musicians capable of notable things.)

            (The August 11  recital of of Oliver Salonga  entitled “Reminiscences” include Beethoven: 32 Variations   in C minor, Wo Op.  80; Schumann: Fantasiestucke, Op.12; Liszt: Concert Paraphrase on Gounod's Faust Waltz, S.407; Chopin: Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat Major, Op.61; Ravel: La Valse; Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor, Op.36, (1931).)

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine