Festival of choirs

My Dreams List's Festival of Choirs is my New Year offering to all !

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

My favorite foreign song is a Christmas song

I didn't have any idea that "Frohlocket Ihr Folker auf Erden" is a Christmas song since I can't understand German, until the Christmas season last year. Maybe this is one song I'll always appreciate regardless of the choir who'll sing it, though I was used to the interpretation of Arwin Tan, the conductor of Novo Concertante Manila, and who was also the former conductor of University of Asia and the Pacific Chorale from whom I first heard the song in July 2005.

I am touched whenever I hear this song, I can't explain why until I learned that it was originally sang during the Christmas season. This composition by Mendelssohn exclaims the joy and thanksgiving of the world for He has sent His son for the redemption of mankind.

I'd like to share this version sang by Novo Concertante Manila, during their Thanksgiving concert at the Holy Family Chapel at Kamias, Quezon City, and another one shot last night during the "Merry Novo Christmas" concert of Novo Concertante Manila and friends at the Holy Family Chapel at Eastwood City, also in Quezon City. I used my Sony P72 camera to record the one sang during the Thanksgiving concert and my Samsung U600 cellphone to record the latter, so you'll notice a big technical difference as far as the audio is concerned. I'm happy though that despite the far shot, my Samsung cellphone gave a bright picture.

El Guayaboso by Novo Concertante

I’d like to end this Mother’s Day month with music that every mother and her whole family will surely enjoy! I can’t also end this month without sharing how Mother’s Day was different for me this year. It was only this year that I realized that any special day that was started to be celebrated on its eve will be extraordinarily special because it will set a happy mood hours in advance.

I had a grand time during Mother’s Day Eve because my son and daughter, O.C. and Lauren, treated us their parents, to a concert where their choir, the Novo Concertante, were one of the participants. After that, we ate at Tereyaki Boy where I enjoyed the food chosen by the two young adults. The food was very good, maybe because we were first satisfied by the “appetizers”, the songs of Novo Concertante.

My camera can only shoot two songs at the most, and I was lucky that there were no distractions while I was shooting their last song, El Guayaboso, unlike the song prior to that where there were a lot of “passers-by”.

You will surely enjoy this video of Novo Concertante singing El Guayaboso (The Liar), because of their unique rendition. O.C. and Lauren were side by side (below the middle of the "Voyages" signage), at the right of their choir master, Arwin Tan. The concert was part of the series of concert of Madz et al Festival 2008 titled “Voyages”. It was a festival participated by choirs conducted by former members of the internationally known Madrigal Singers of the Philippines. Arwin Tan was one of the Madrigal Singers, and he is the conductor of Novo Concertante which won several international awards the past years. He was also the conductor when University of Asia and the Pacific Chorale won the grand prize at the international contest in Preveza, Greece (The Victory post of this blog). Some members of this chorale like my son, are now members of Novo Concertante.



I published this video in “You Tube” and there was a comment that shared the story of El Guayaboso. It is a Cuban folk song composed by Guido Lopez Gavilan of Cuba. "It tells of stories that are purely lies which Gavilan heard from his grandma when he was still little.. he composed the song but was actually made for a group of percussions.. thus keten keten, etc, cum cum, etc.." (parts also sang by the choir).

A "stage mother" like me will not miss to take photos of her children right after their concert so you'll also see those photos here.

Amazing Grace in Greece

I was in Greece with my son and daughter in July 2005, when my employer’s Top Management announced the need to close down our department by the end of 2005, which will result to us, the staff, to be retired involuntarily. If that was announced earlier, I wouldn’t have gone to Greece, since the transportation alone was expensive. However, whenever I’d think about that and the events that happened in Greece, I’d always end up very grateful that the announcement was made later because I consider the trip to Greece an amazing grace from God.

The trip to Greece was an opportunity for my daughter and me to watch the University of Asia and the Pacific Chorale where my son was a member, compete during the international choir contest at Preveza, a small town in Greece. From the Athens airport, we rode a bus and on our way to Preveza , I’ve seen a very beautiful spot that can be seen in any part of the world, but the site of the clouds emitting rays of the sun at that time looked very special to me. It appeared like a sign that God’s graces will be showered to the UA&P Chorale so I told Arwin Tan, the choir master, “It looks like you’re going to win!”, while we were all looking at the clouds.

I watched the UA&P Chorale rehearse, and during their breaks, I would read the John Maxwell book that I brought. A chapter of that book was about John Maxwell's determinants of victory, and I was astonished because the choir sounded like the winner whom John Maxwell would like to address his “determinants of victory”, so I copied it and was read by Arwin Tan to the choir.

During the contest proper, while listening to the UA&P Chorale, I knew I was right. I knew they will emerge as the winner. Not only did they sing like winners, there was even a Divine Intervention during one of their first songs titled "O Magnum Misterium" ("Oh Great Mystery"). The climax of the song was a series of "Alleluia" and about two seconds before that, the nearby church's bells rang and blended with their song then stopped right before the final alleluia! It was very beautiful!