Antonio Molina

Antonio Molina (26 December 1894 – 29 January 1980) was a Filipino

composer, conductor and music administrator. He was named a National
Artist of the Philippines for his services to music. He was also known as the
Claude Debussy of the Philippines due to his use of impressionist themes in
his music.
Molina was born in Quiapo, Manila, the son of Juan Molina, a
government official, who founded the Molina Orchestra. He attended the
Escuela Catolica de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno in Quiapo, Manila, and
college at San Juan De Letran where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts
degree in 1909.
Molina made his first composition in 1912 titled Matinal, which is
preserved in an unpublished volume called Miniaturas,. He was appointed to
teach harmony, composition, music history, and violincello at the UP
Conservatory of Music, pursuing a career in music education until being
appointed dean of the Centro Escolar Conservatory of Music. He founded
the CEU String Quartet which was professionally organized and financed by
its music school.
As a composer Molina is credited with over 500 compositions.
Molina stated in his interview conducted by Helen F. Samson that his
music was usually inspired by literature, with his favorite being La Novia
Muerta by Ruben Daria.
 Lucio D. San Pedro

Lucio D. San Pedro (February 11, 1913 – March 31, 2002) was a Filipino
composer and teacher who was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines
for Music in 1991.
San Pedro came from a family with musical roots and he began his career
early. When he was still in his late teens, he succeeded his deceased
grandfather as the local church organist. By then, he had already composed
songs, hymns and two complete masses for voices and orchestra. After
studying with several prominent musicians in the Philippines, he took
advanced composition training with Bernard Wagenaar of the Netherlands.
He also studied harmony and orchestration under Vittorio Giannini and took
classes at Juilliard in 1947.
His other vocation was teaching. He has taught at the Ateneo de Manila
University, virtually all the major music conservatories in Manila, and at the
College of Music of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where he
retired as a full professor in 1978. He later received the title Professor
Emeritus from the University in 1979. He also became a faculty member of
the Centro Escolar University Conservatory of Music in Manila.
On May 9, 1991, President Corazon C. Aquino proclaimed San Pedro a
National Artist of the Philippines for Music.
San Pedro died of cardiac arrest on March 31, 2002 in Angono, Rizal, at the
age of 89. Many peers from the Order of National Artists attended his tribute
at the Tanghalang Pambansa, including: Napoleón Abueva, Daisy Avellana,
Leonor Gokingco, Nick Joaquín, Arturo Luz, José Maceda, and Andrea
Veneración. He is buried in his hometown of Angono, Rizal.
 Cipriano Cayabyab

Raymundo Cayabyab in 1954 in Santa Cruz, Manila, he suffered the death

of his mother, Celerina Venson Pujante (she died of cancer at the age of 43),
when he was 6 years old. His father, Alberto Austria Cayabyab, who was an
ordinary government employee, struggled to support him and his three
siblings. An opera singer and a college professor at the UP School of Music
(to whom he considered her as his first piano teacher), his mother's dying
wish was that none of the children pursue a music career, as she knew how
hard life it was, with often low earnings. At the age of 4, Cayabyab began his
musical education with piano lessons.
Cayabyab initially took up Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in
the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Looking for work to support his
studies, he landed with then-Senator Salvador Laurel as accompanist for the
Chorale Ensemble of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
Noticing Cayabyab's exceptional talent on playing the piano, Laurel offered
Cayabyab a scholarship to enable him to pursue an education in music.
Cayabyab graduated from the UP College of Music earning a Bachelor of
Music, Major in Theory degree. Eventually, he became a full-time professor
for the Department of Composition and Music Theory in the UP Diliman for
almost two decades.
At the turn of the 21st century, Cayabyab was considering a move to migrate
abroad with his family. Danding Cojuangco (President of the San Miguel
Corporation) offered him a position to produce and perform new music to
add to the Philippine music scene; Cayabyab accepted the offer as Executive
and Artistic Director of the San Miguel Foundation for the Performing Arts.
He served there for several years until the sudden closure of the foundation.
As music director, conductor and accompanist, Cayabyab has performed in
the United States with leading Philippine music figures, at venues including
Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center in New York City; Carnegie Hall (both
the Main and Recital halls) in New York; the Kennedy Center and the
Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.; the Shrine in Los
Angeles; the Orpheum in Vancouver; and Circus Maximus of Caesars
Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.
He has traveled as music director in most of the Southeast Asian cities, in
the cities of Australia as well as in (Germany), France, Spain, the
Netherlands, Japan, and the United States. He has worked in the same
shows with Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, as well as conducted the
Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra for special performances of American jazz
singer Diane Schuur and pianist Jim Chappel.
He has performed as music director in command performances for King
Hasan II in Rabat, Morocco, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia of Spain
in Manila, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in Tangiers, Queen Beatrix at the
Noordeinde Palace in the Netherlands, and U.S. President Bill Clinton in
Boston, Massachusetts.
In Manila, he has conducted the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, at the
Cultural Center of the Philippines for a concert of Philippine and American
contemporary music; and the Manila Chamber Orchestra for a concert of his
original works.
Ryan Cayabyab (born Raymundo Cipriano Pujante Cayabyab on May 4,
1954 in Manila, Philippines), also known as Mr. C, is a Filipino musician,
composer and conductor. He was the Executive and Artistic Director for
several years for the defunct San Miguel Foundation for the Performing Arts.
He was named a National Artist of the Philippines in 2018.
His works range from commissioned full-length ballets, theater musicals,
choral pieces, a Mass set to unaccompanied chorus, and orchestral pieces,
to commercial recordings of popular music, film scores and television
specials.
Cayabyab's current project includes the Ryan Cayabyab Singers (RCS), a
group of seven young adult singers comparable to his group Smokey
Mountain in the early 1990s. After FreemantleMedia decided not to renew
the Philippine Idol franchise, Cayabyab transferred to rival show Pinoy
Dream Academy (season 2), replacing Jim Paredes as the show's
headmaster. PDA 2 started on June 14, 2008. He also became the chairman
of the board of judges for GMA Network's musical-reality show To The Top.
He is the executive director of the Philpop MusicFest Foundation Inc., the
organization behind the Philippine Popular Music Festival. This songwriting
competition for amateurs and professionals puts the spotlight on songwriters
and encourages Filipinos to preserve their unique musical identity.
 Antonio R. Buenaventura

Antonino R. Buenaventura vigorously pursued a musical career that

spanned seven decades of unwavering commitment to advancing the
frontiers of Philippine music. In 1935, Buenaventura joined Francisca Reyes-
Aquino to conduct research on folksongs and dances that led to its
popularization. Buenaventura composed songs, compositions, for solo
instruments as well as symphonic and orchestral works based on the
folksongs of various Philippine ethnic groups. He was also a conductor and
restored the Philippine Army Band to its former prestige as one of the finest
military bands in the world making it “the only band that can sound like a
symphony orchestra”.
This once sickly boy who played the clarinet proficiently has written several
marches such as the “Triumphal March,” “Echoes of the Past,” “History
Fantasy,” Second Symphony in E-flat, “Echoes from the Philippines,” “Ode
to Freedom.” His orchestral music compositions include Concert Overture,
Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, Philippines Triumphant, Mindanao Sketches,
Symphony in C Major, among others.
 Alfredo Santos Buenaventura

Alfredo Santos Buenaventura was born in Santa Maria, Bulacan in 1929 and
studied music at the University of Santo Tomas, the Centro Escolar
University and the Gregorian Institute. His career brought him teaching
appointments at the Philippine Women’s University, St. Scholastica’s
College and at the Centro Escolar University, where he became Dean of
Music at the conservatory. He was formerly organist at the Metropolitan
Cathedral in Manila and, among many other honours, received the
Republican Cultural Heritage Awards in 1964 and 1972 and the Bonifacio
Centennial Awards.
The compositions of Alfredo Buenaventura include a number of operas,
symphonic poems, vocal works and chamber music.
 Rodolfo S. Cornejo

Founder Benjamin R. Salvosa and Rodolfo S. Cornejo were contemporary

students at the University of the Philippines. Before Cornejo became famous,
he was commissioned by the Founder to compose the music for then Baguio
Colleges. The lyrics well reflect the Founders' vision for the first institution of
higher education in Baguio City, in the Cordillera highlands, as relevant today
as it was in 1946.
Rodolfo S. Cornejo, a composer, pianist and conductor, was born on the 15th
of May, 1909, in Manila. His parents are Miguel Cornejo, Sr. and Crisanta
Soldevilla. In 1949, he married Nieves Guerrero, a lyric soprano. The couple
had five children.
Rodolfo S. Cornejo started piano lessons with Gelacio Reyes at age six. At
age eight, he had his first recital, and he became the organist of the Pasay
Catholic Church. He wrote his first composition, Glissando Waltz, at age 10.
He also wrote and published a military march, Salute, at age 13. At 16,
twenty-six of his works had been listed by the United Publishing Co.. While
he was finishing his high school, he was already enrolled at the University of
the Philippines (UP) Conservatory of Music.
At the UP Conservatory, he studied under Dr. Francisco Santiago, Nicanor
Abelardo and Alexander Lippay. Barely three years after completing his high
school, he obtained his teacher's diplomas in piano, science and
composition. He taught for a year at UP, then left for the United States. He
acquired a bachelor's degree in piano and theory at the Chicago Musical
College of Roosevelt University in 1932. He won the Wesley Le Violette
scholarship in composition, went on to complete his master's degree in 1933.
He studied with Rudolf Ganz and Glenn Dillard Gunn.
In 1934, he returned to the Philippines, founded and directed the Manila
Conservatory of Music. He again left for the US in 1939 to pursue doctorate
studies in composition. He earned his doctorate degree in 1947 at the
Neotarian College in Kansas City, USA. In his US sojourns, Cornejo was a
soloist with various orchestras, such as the New York City Symphony
Orchestra, National Orchestra Association, and many others. During World
War II, he played at concerts for the Allied Armed Forces. In 1941, he
became researcher and official composer of the Philippine government-in-
exile. In 1945, the Chicago Musical College awarded him an honorary
doctorate in music.

In the Philippines, he became director of the Cosmpolitan Colleges

Conservatory of Music from 1948 to 1949. He also concertized. He wrote
scores for twenty-seven films during his 10 years as musical director of
Sampaguita Pictures. He is founding member of the League of Filipino
Composers.
He wrote over 300 compositions. These ranged from classical to pop. His
major works include The Season - Song Cycle (1932), A La Juventud Filipina
(1935), Philippine Symphony No. 1 (1939), No.2 (1942), and No. 3 (1947) all
for piano solo; Oriental Fantasy (1944) and Philippine Fantasy with Marimba
Solo (1962). He wrote music for the ballets Ibong Adarna (1970) and Baile
de Ayer (1974). His cantata Christ the Redeemer for soloists, narrator, mixed
chorus and orchestra, premiered at the Philamlife Auditorium in 1977. He
also wrote a musical A Glimpse of Philippine Life and Culture, which
premiered at the Seattle Opera House in 1978. He is listed in the
International Who's Who in Music.
 Hilarion Rubio Francisco

Rubio y Francesco came into contact with the music by his uncle, who played
in the harmonica orchestra of Bacoor. His first music lessons in solfège and
clarinet he got with Pater Amando Buencamino. At the age of 8, he was
included as a clarinetist in the harmonica orchestra of Bacoor. Shortly
thereafter, he wrote his first composition "Unang Katas" for this concert
orchestra. In his High School time he was a member of several orchestras in
the region and also played in the orchestra of the lyrical theater, in the Trozo
Harmony Orchestra and the Band Moderna in Tondo. Around 1930 he
founded the "Anak Zapote Band" with others. He became conductor of the
ROTC Band of the University of the Philippines Conservatory of Music until
graduating in 1933. Temporary he was also a violinist and pauistist at the
university symphony orchestra.
In 1936, he became conductor of the Manila Music School opera and choir
leader of Choir Islanders as well as instructor at the University of the
Philippines Conservatory of Music. For a certain time he was also a teacher
at the Buencamino Music Academy, La Concordia College, the College of
the Holy Spirit, the Santa Isabel College, the Laperal Music Academy, the
Manila Music School, St. Theresa's College and the Valencia Academy of
Music. In 1944 and 1945 he was director of the Centro University of Music.
During the Second World War he was unable to teach at the high schools in
part, but then he gave private lessons and composed a lot. He was also
conductor of many military and civil harmony orchestras.
After the war he was conductor of the Manilla Municipal Symphony
Orchestra. He reorganized the UNIDA church choir. He became Vice
President of the PASAMBAP, the National Federation of Philippine Harmony
Orchests. He was a member of the board of the Philippine composers
federation.
As a composer he wrote for different genres including movie music.
Compositions Working for concert orchestra Bibliography Externe link
 Rosendo E. Santos, Jr.

Rosendo E. Santos, Jr. was born September 3, 1922, in Cavite City,

Philippines, son of the late Rosendo and Castora Santos, and died
November 4, 1994 at home in Swoyersville, Pennsylvania. He was educated
in Cavite schools. He was a graduate of the University of the Philippines,
Conservatory of Music, where he later served as a faculty member. He
received his master’s degree in theory and composition from the Catholic
University of America in Washington, D.C., and later served on the faculty of
the Catholic University, West Virginia University, and Howard University.
At age 11, he started composing band marches, instrumental and vocal
scores and Catholic masses. He was later named a UNESCO scholar and
received the Composer of the Year Award. In Manila he was Composer of
the Year in 1956 and 1957, and won 12 prizes consecutively in composition
contests. Most recently, he received the title of “The Philippine Composer of
the Century.”
Professor Santos joined the faculty at Wilkes University, Pennsylvania in
1968, where he performed as a timpanist, pianist, and conductor with several
orchestral groups. He has also conducted church choirs in Maryland, New
Jersey, and most recently at Lehman, Huntsville and Shavertown United
Methodist Churches in Pennsylvania.
He composed the background music for J. Arthur Rank Films at Pinewood
Studios in London, England, where he worked with Muir Mathieson and
Malcolm Arnold. Among his teachers were Aaron Copland, Irving Fine,
Humphrey Searle and conductor Norman Del Mar.
Mr. Santos is listed in the “New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians.”
A prolific composer, his works include concertos, sonatas, symphonies,
symphonic poems, five operas in Philippine dialect, numerous band
overtures and more than 200 marches. He wrote 50 masses in Latin and 20
in English and has more than 1,000 musical compositions in the library of the
University of the Philippines.
An honored member of the Senior Mozart Club of Wyoming Valley, PA, Mr.
Santos privately taught more that 2,000 children since arriving in the
Wyoming Valley in 1968. His last musical work, “Melinda’s Masquerade,” his
only ballet, was performed in 1995, after his death in 1994.
He was married in 1966 to Harriet L. Clendenin (1939- ), and then had three
children, Erik (1967- ), Nathan (1970- ), and Jason Santos (1972- ).
The above image is the Rosendo E. Santos Memorial Alberta Spruce,
located at Shavertown United Methodist Church, Shavertown, Pennsylvania.
 Antonio R. Buenaventura

Antonino R. Buenaventura vigorously pursued a musical career that

spanned seven decades of unwavering commitment to advancing the
frontiers of Philippine music. In 1935, Buenaventura joined Francisca Reyes-
Aquino to conduct research on folksongs and dances that led to its
popularization. Buenaventura composed songs, compositions, for solo
instruments as well as symphonic and orchestral works based on the
folksongs of various Philippine ethnic groups. He was also a conductor and
restored the Philippine Army Band to its former prestige as one of the finest
military bands in the world making it “the only band that can sound like a
symphony orchestra”.
This once sickly boy who played the clarinet proficiently has written several
marches such as the “Triumphal March,” “Echoes of the Past,” “History
Fantasy,” Second Symphony in E-flat, “Echoes from the Philippines,” “Ode
to Freedom.” His orchestral music compositions include Concert Overture,
Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, Philippines Triumphant, Mindanao Sketches,
Symphony in C Major, among others.
 Jose Maceda

Maceda was born in Manila, Philippines, and studied piano, composition and
musical analysis at École Normale de Musique de Paris in France. After
returning to the Philippines, he became a professional pianist, and later
studied musicology at Columbia University, and anthropology at
Northwestern University.
Starting in 1952, he conducted fieldwork on the ethnic Music of the
Philippines. From about 1954, he was involved in the research and
composition of musique concrète. In 1958, he worked at a recording studio
in Paris which specialized in musique concrète. During this period, he met
Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. In 1963, Maceda
earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the UCLA. He began pursuing
a compositional career more vigorously. At the same time, he held concerts
in Manila until 1969, in which he performed and conducted. This series of
concerts introduced Boulez, Xenakis and Edgard Varèse to the Filipino
public.
As an ethnomusicologist, Maceda investigated various forms of music in
Southeast Asia, producing numerous papers and even composing his own
pieces for Southeast Asian instruments. His notable works include:
Pagsamba for 116 instruments, 100 mixed and 25 male voices (1968);
Cassette 100 for 100 cassette players (1971); Ugnayan for 20 radio stations
(1974); Udlot-Udlot for several hundred to several thousand people (1975);
Suling-Suling for 10 flutes, 10 bamboo buzzers and 10 flat gongs (1985). In
1977, Maceda aimed to study Philippine folk songs which he describes as
having more focus on rhythm rather than time measure.From the 1990s, he
also composed for Western orchestra and piano. The examples are:
Distemperament for orchestra (1992); Colors without Rhythm for orchestra
(1999); Sujeichon for 4 pianos (2002).
Jose Maceda collected audio records materials of traditional music amongst
various populations in Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, part of these
audio archives are deposited in the CNRS – Musée de l’Homme audio
archives in France (a digitized version is available online). His entire musical
collections were inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in
2007, as submitted by the U.P. Center for Ethnomusicology and nominated
by the Philippine government.
 Lucrecia Roces Kasilag
Lucrecia “King” Roces Kasilag was born in San Fernando, La Union,
Philippines, the third of the six children of Marcial Kasilag, Sr., a civil
engineer, and his wife Asuncion Roces Ganancial, a violinist and a violin
teacher. She was Kasilag's first solfeggio teacher. The second was Doña
Concha Cuervo, who was a strict Spanish woman. Kasilag later studied
under Doña Pura Villanueva, during which time performed her first public
piece, Felix Mendelssohn's May Breezes, at a student recital when she was
ten years old.
As a composer Lucrecia Kasilag was prolific, exploring, in particular, the
possible conjunction of Eastern and Western instruments and material. Her
work in music has been recognized at home and abroad by various official
honours, and she frequently represented her country abroad at international
conferences on music.
During World War II, she took up composition, and on 1 December 1945,
she performed her own compositions in a concert at Philippine Women's
University. From 1946 to 1947, Kasilag taught at the University of the
Philippines’ Conservatory of Music and worked as secretary-registrar at
Philippines Women's University.
She completed a Bachelor of Music in 1949, and then attended the Eastman
School of Music in Rochester, New York, studying theory with Allen I.
McHose and composition with Wayne Barlow. Kasilag returned to the
Philippines, and in 1953 she was appointed Dean of the Philippines
Women's University College of Music and Fine Arts.
After completing her studies, Kasilag made an international tour as a concert
pianist, but eventually had to give up a performing career due to a congenital
weakness in one hand.
Kasilag was instrumental in developing Philippine music and culture. She
founded the Bayanihan Folks Arts Center for research and theatrical
presentations, and was closely involved with the Bayanihan Philippine
Dance Company.
She was also a former president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines,
head of the Asian Composers League, Chairperson of the Philippine Society
for Music Education, and was one of the pioneers of the Bayanihan Dance
Company. She is credited for having written more than 350 musical
compositions, ranging from folksongs to opera to orchestral works, and was
composing up to the year before she died, at age 89.
Lucrecia Roces Kasilag died due to pneumonia on August 16, 2008 in
Manila, Philippines.
 Ramón Pagayon Santos
Ramon Pagayon Santos was born on February 25, 1941. He received his
Bachelor of Music Composition and Conducting from University of the
Philippines Conservatory of Music in 1965, his Master of Music with
distinction from Indiana University in 1969, and his Doctor of Philosophy from
State University of New York at Buffalo in 1972. He was also a student in
summer courses in New Music at Darmstadt in 1974 and in Special Seminars
in Ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois in 1989. He has studied
composition with Hilarion Rubio, Lucio San Pedro, Thomas Beversdorf,
Roque Cordero, Ramon Fuller, and William Koethe. He has taken
contemporary music courses with Istvan Anhalt and George Perle and has
studied Ethnomusicology with Bruno Nettl. He has also studied Javanese
music and dance with Sundari Wisnusubroto and Nan Kuan with Lao Hong
Kio.
Santos has held the position of Commissioner of the Sub-committee on the
Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts since 1998,
University Professor since 1995, Chairman and Secretary General of the
Music Competitions for Young Artists Foundation from 1989 to 1997. He also
currently holds the positions of Secretary of the League of Filipino
Composers, Member of the ISCM Advisory Panel on the World’s Musical
Cultures, Lecturer for the Asian Instituts for Liturgy and Music, Member of
the Humanities Division of the National Research Council of the Philippines.
His past positions include Artistic Director of the Cultural Center of the
Philippines, Chairman of the Asian Composers League (1994-1997), Dean
of UP College of Music (1978-1988), and President of the National Music
Council of the Philippines (1984-1993).
Among awards he has received are Composer-in-Residence of Bellagio
Study Center/Rockefellar Foundation (1997); Artist-in-Residence, Civitella
Ranieri Center (1998); Acheivement Award in the Humanities from National
Research Council of the Philippines (1994); Fellowships from the Asian
Cultural Council and The Ford Foundation (1998-1989); and Chevalier de
l’Ordre des Artes et Lettres, French Government.
 Josefino “chino” Toledo

Jesefino married to Immaculada Concepcion Ramos on October 18, 1986.

They have a daughter: Charisse Loraine Toledo.
From 1980 to 1983 Jesefino worked as an instructor at the University of
Philippines. Also, Josefino was an instructor at the University of St. Thomas
in Quezon City, Philippines from 1980 to 1983. In 1982 he was a principal
percussionist of the Manila Symphony Orchestra in Manila, Philippines. He
held this position until 1983. In two years he became a music director in
Siena-Letran Chorale in Quezon City, Philippines. He worked there until
1989.
Since 1987 Jesefino works as a Professor at the University of the Philippines.
In this year he was a director in Score Music Consultant Company in Manila,
Philippines. Since 1990 he works as an executive director in Miriam College
Center for Applied Music.
Josefino Chino Toledois is a full professor of music composition and theory
at the University of the Philippines. Josefino Chino Toledo is the founding
music director of Metro-Manila Concert Orchestra (MMCO) and the Grupo
20/21, a modular music ensemble.
The United States premiere of his composition "Sulyap sa simbahan ng
quiapo mula sa kalye echague" at Lincoln Center, New York was critically
praised by the New York Times and New York Concert Network. Toledo’s
works also include music for theater, films and revisions and editing of
Philippine Sarsuwelas.
Toledo’s own compositions are regularly performed in international festivals,
concerts, and recitals in US, Canada, Lithuania, Brazil, Israel, Australia, New
Zealand, Italy, France, Austria, Netherlands, Germany, and almost all Asian
countries. As a conductor, he is noted for premiering works of Filipino
composers as well as other Asian composers and has conducted concerts
in Japan, Indonesia, Australia, and China. He was the associate artistic
director and conductor of the first Asia-Europe Music Camp by the Asia-
Europe Foundation.
Josefino Chino Toledo is cited in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians (United Kingdom); 20th Century Composers of Asia (Japan);
Komponisten der Gegenwart (Germany); Philippine Encyclopedia for the
Arts; Who’s Who in International Music (England); and Who’s Who in
Australasia and Far East (England).
 Francisco Feliciano

Francisco Feliciano (19 February 1941 – 19 September 2014) was a Filipino

composer and conductor. He was a National Artist of the Philippines for
Music.
Feliciano was born in 1941, in Morong, Rizal.
Francisco Feliciano graduated from the University of the Philippines with a
Teacher's diploma in Music (1967) with a Masters in Music Composition
(1972). In 1977 he went to the Hochschule der Kuenste in Berlin, Germany
to obtain a diploma in Music Composition. In 1979 he attended Yale
University School of Music and graduated with a Master of Musical Arts and
a Doctorate in Musical Arts, Composition. While at Yale University he
conducted the Yale Contemporary Ensemble, considered as one of the
leading performing groups in America for contemporary and avant-garde
music. His teachers in conducting were Arthur Weisberg and Martin
Behrmann, while he studied composition under Jacob Druckman, Isang Yun,
H.W. Zimmerman and Krzysztof Penderecki.
He died in September 19, 2014, in Manila.
 Michael Jerry Dadap
Michael Dadap is a popular Filipino guitarist, composer, and conductor, and
an influentialadvocate of Filipino folk music. He was influential in the creation
of a world-class rondalla ensemble in the United States is also the founding
music director of the Iskwelahang Rondalla (Rondalla School) of Boston,
Massachusetts.
Dadap was born in Barangay Bangcas B Hinunangan, Southern Leyte, on
November 5, 1935, into a family of musicians, one of the 14 children of
Dionesia Amper and Vedasto Dadap. His first exposure to music was at a
local Protestant church, where he grew up with the hymns of Handel, Mozart
and Beethoven. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1964 from the University
of the Philippines, majoring in conduction. In 1971, he went to study
composition and conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York
City and three years later made his debut performance at Carnegie Recital
Hall. He also toured as a musical performer in other parts of the United
States, Europe and the Far East.
Since 1984, Dadap has been the artistic and musical director and principal
conductor of the Children's Orchestra Society (COS) in New York City.
WQXR, the classical music radio station of The New York Times, featured
Dadap's album, Intimate Guitar Classics, in 1990. Dadap had also been
given the Asian-American Alliance for the Arts Award for composing the
Handurawan Dance Suite, a work that was premiered by the Brooklyn
Philharmonic's Chamber Orchestra in 1988. In December 2000, Dadap was
recognized as the first recipient of the 2000 Artist of the Year by the Flushing
Council on the Arts in Queens, New York. On December 7, 2007, Philippine
President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, presented Dadap the Pamana ng Lahi
Award at the Malacañan Palace.
As a conductor, Dadap has worked with violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Soovin Kim
and Sarah Chang, pianists Cecile Licad and Emanuel Ax, cellist (and
brother-in-law) Yo-Yo Ma, flutist Paula Robison, and most recently Jaime
Laredo and Sharon Robinson. His other works include the children's musical
play, Five Visayan Serenades for Guitar; the full-length folkloric ballet,
Alamat ng Ampalaya (Legend of the Bitter Melon); and the Legend of the
Tikling Bird. Dadap is also the author of the book Complete Method for the
Virtuoso Bandurria.
Dadap was one of the featured performing artists during the celebratory
musical program for the 109th anniversary of Philippine independence,
Pamana (A Heritage of Philippine Music), a presentation held at the
Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center in New York City on June 11, 2007.
Dadap's performance was followed by a recital by the Filipino pianist,
Adolovni Acosta.

Dadap is a Queens, New York resident. He lives with his wife, Yeou-Cheng
Ma, the eldest sister of Yo-Yo Ma. Dadap has two children, Daniel and Laura.
 Jonas Baes

Jonas Baes is a Philippine composer born in Los Baños, Laguna in 1961. He

enrolled in the University of the Philippines' College of Music in 1977 as a
student of Ramon P. Santos, and encountered the musical compositions of
Jose Maceda, attended several seminar-workshops of visiting lecturers, and
did research on the music of the Iraya-Mangyan people of Mindoro, which
became the inspiration for his compositions. From 1992-1994, he studied
with Mathias Spahlinger in Freiburg, Germany. Baes is known for writing
music utilizing "unorthodox" musical instruments like bean-pod rattles,
leaves, iron-nail chimes, as well as various Asian instruments such as
bamboo scrapers, bamboo flutes, and vocal music using Asian vocal
techniques. His early works in the 1980s were influenced by Maceda in the
use of large numbers of performers, while in the 1990s he experimented with
various methods by which the audience becomes integral in the
performance. At the beginning of the new century, Baes experiments with
notions of structure-agency integration [after Anthony Giddens] and
simulacrum [after Jean Baudrillard]. It is typical for social theory to influence
the work of Baes who has made a mark on contemporary music and cultural
politics in the Asian region. Jonas Baes is also active as an
ethnomusicologist and writer.
These are his compositions:
WALA [nothingness] for seven or hundreds of men's voices [1997/2001]
DALUY [flow] interval music for five animator-percussionists and about a
hundred bird whistles distributed among the audience [1994]
IBO-IBON [birdwoman] for dancer wearing small bells, two large wind chimes
passed around the audience, four animator-callers, and iron nail chimes
played by the audience [1996]
SALAYSAY [narratives/ inspired by Jean Baudrillard] for solo voice, three
percussionists, and pairs of pebbles distributed among the audience
PATANGIS-BUWAYA [and the crocodile weeps] for four sub-contrabass
recordrs or any blown instruments [2003]
PANTAWAG [music for calling people] for 15 bamboo scrapers, 15 palm
leaves, and 20 muffled "forest" voices [1981]
BASBASAN [blessing] for 20 bean-pod rattles and 20 muffled men's voices
[1983]
 Fr. Manuel Maramba

Fr. Manuel Maramba is one of the most accomplished musicians and

liturgists in the Philippines emerging during the second half of the 20th
century. He was born on July 4, 1936 in Pangasinan.
when he was 11 years old, he gave his first public performance at the
Bamboo Organ in Las Piñas. He became the official accompanist of the Las
Piñas Boys Choir at 14 years old. He was the youngest finalist to participate
in the National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA) piano
competition in 1978.
He has composed operas like Aba!, Sto. Nino, La Naval, and Lord Takayama
Ukon.
His other major compositions are the music for Awakening which was
commissioned by Ballet Philippines and music for Philippine Ballet Theater’s
production of Seven Mansions; three masses – Papal Mass for World Youth
Day, 1995; Mass in Honor of St. Lorenzo Ruiz, and the Mass in Honor of the
Sto. Nino; three cantatas – St. Lorenzo Ruiz, St. Benedict, and St.
Scholastica; Three Psalms; A hymn in honor of St. Lorenzo Ruiz, and the
official hymn of the 1996 National Eucharistic Congress; a zarzuela entitled
Ang Sarswela sa San Salvador, and three orchestral works – Pugad Lawin,
The Virgin of Naval, and Transfiguration.
Fr. Manuel Maramba OSB, one of the most accomplished musicians in the
Philippines, is best known as a liturgical composer whose body of works lean
towards religious figures and events. His versatility as a pianist, composer,
arranger, theorist, and teacher is widely recognized in the local musical
scene.
 Levi Celerio

Levi Celerio (April 30, 1910 – April 2, 2002) was a Filipino composer and
lyricist who is credited to writing not less than 4,000 songs. Celerio was
recognized as a National Artist of the Philippines for Music and Literature in
1997.
He is also known for using the leaf as a musical instrument which led to being
recognized as the "only man who could play music using a leaf" by the
Guinness Book of Records[citation needed]. This led to him making guest
appearance in television shows recorded outside the Philippines.
Aside from being a musician, Celerio is also poet. He was also a film actor
who appeared in various Philippine films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Levi Celerio was a member of the Manila Symphony Orchestra but his stint
with the musical troupe ended when he fell off a tree and broke his wrist. He
temporarily worked as a comic illustrator and later decided to shift to
songwriting.
Prior to turning to songwriting, Celerio got involved in poetry and was a
humorist in the orchestra of Premiere Productions. He held high regard to
poet, Jose Corazon de Jesus. However his poems failed to gain positive
reception and his works were regarded as "lacking in style". Later in his
career, he had Filipino Palindromes and Take It From Levi, a collection of
love poems he wrote published.
Levi Celerio is credited for writing more than 4,000 songs, many of which are
dedicated to his wife and children.He wrote Filipino folk, Christmas, and love
songs and some of his songs were used in feature films.
Among Original Pilipino Music (OPM) songs he composed are "Ikaw", "Kahit
Konting Pagtingin", "Saan Ka Man Naroroon?". He wrote the lyrics of the
famous Filipino lullabye Sa Ugoy ng Duyan . He also composed folk songs
including "Ako ay May Singsing", "Ang Pipit", "Dungawin Mo Hirang", "Itik-
Itik", "Pitong Gatang", and "Waray-Waray" "Sa Ugoy ng Duyan", in particular
was a collaboration with Lucio San Pedro, a fellow National Artist. The song
is a carrier song in Aiza Seguerra's gold album, Pinakamamahal.
"Ang Pasko ay Sumapit", officially title "Maligayang Pasko at Manigong
Bagong Taon" is an example of a well-known Christmas song by
Celerio,which was the Tagalog version from the original Cebuano song,
Kasadya Ning Taknaa, by Vicente Rubi and Mariano Vestil.
 Constancio de Guzman

Constancio de Guzman was born on November 11, 1903 in Guiguinto,

Bulacan, Philippines and grew up in Manila. He died on August 16, 1982. His
father was Higino de Guzman and his mother was Margarita Canseco.
Constancio de Guzman was a movie composer and musical director. He
studied piano and composition and also became a certified public
accountants in 1932.
Constancio de Guzman was acknowledged as the “Dean of Filipino movie
composers and musical directors.” He is the composer of the nationalistic
song Bayan Ko.
Bayan Ko was later adopted as the symbolic song of the People Power
Movement of 1986. The same song won for him the Awit Award for Best
Filipino Lyricist.
 Mike Velarde

Mariano Zuniega Velarde (born August 20, 1939), better known as Brother
Mike Velarde, is the founder and "Servant Leader" of a Philippines-based
Catholic charismatic movement called El Shaddai which has estimated
following of three to seven million. He is the best known televangelist in the
Philippines.
He is also the owner of Amvel Land Development Corporation, a real estate
company, and Delta Broadcasting System.
Bro. Mike began his involvement with Charismatic Christianity together with
the late Russian-Filipino actor-turned-evangelist Ronald Remy who
eventually founded the Corpus Christi Community, an Evangelical
congregation now known as Lord Jesus Our Redeemer (LJOR) Church.
Velarde, having experienced and been exposed to the Charismatic
movement, decided to remain within the Roman Catholic Church. In 1984,
he founded the El Shaddai movement and it has become an eclectic
expression of Philippine folk Christianity, the Charismatic movement and
Roman Catholicism.Velarde remains a layman within the Roman Catholic
church.
His preaching style is no different from typical prosperity gospel-driven
Pentecostal televangelists. It promises God's financial and physical
blessings to all provided that they remain faithful in attendance to gatherings,
giving their tithes and offerings, and obedience. Part of Velarde's practical
theology is the use of certain inanimate objects such as handkerchiefs,
bankbooks and umbrellas which are held aloft during services. Such
practices are not foreign to Filipino indigenous and folk religion. Thus,
Velarde's brand of Catholic Charismaticism is highly acceptable to a majority
of Filipinos. Initially, Bro. Mike reports that only "the poorest of the poor"
attended El Shaddai's services.
Bro. Mike over the years has both endorsed political candidates and ran for
office himself, such as for the Philippine House of Representatives.
 Ernani Joson Cuenco

Ernani Joson Cuenco (May 10, 1936 – June 11, 1988) was a Filipino
composer,[2] film scorer, musical director and music teacher and Philippine
National Artist for Music. He wrote an outstanding and memorable body of
works that resonate with the Filipino sense of musicality and which embody
an ingenious voice that raises the aesthetic dimensions of contemporary
Filipino music. Cuenco played with the Filipino Youth Symphony Orchestra
and the Manila Symphony Orchestra from 1960 to 1968, and the Manila
Chamber Soloists from 1966 to 1970. He completed a music degree in piano
and cello from the University of Santo Tomas where he also taught for
decades until his death in 1988.

He was proclaimed National Artist for Music in 1999; He was an award-

winning film scorer in the early 1960s, working in collaboration with National
Artist for Music Levi Celerio. He was also a teacher and a seasoned
orchestra player.

His songwriting credits include "Nahan, Kahit na Magtiis," and "Diligin Mo ng

Hamog ang Uhaw na Lupa," "Pilipinas," "Inang Bayan," "Isang Dalangin,"
"Kalesa," "Bato sa Buhangin" and "Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal." The latter song
shows how Cuenco enriched the Filipino love ballad by adding the elements
of kundiman to it.
 Restie Umali

- born in Paco, Manila on June 16, 1916. His early exposure to music was
due to the influence of his father who taught him violin as well as his exposure
to the regular family rondalla
- was also taught solfeggio and score readingat the Mapa High School where
he became an active member of the school glee club and orchestra
- played the E-flat horn, trombone, and tuba when he was part of the UST
(University of Santo Tomas) Band
- also taught choral arranging and orchestration at the UST Conservatory of
Music
- majored in Composition and Conducting at the Conservatory of Music,
University of the Philippines (UP) and Commerce at the Jose Rizal College.
- passed an electrician’s course at the Philippine School of Arts and Trades
before embarking on a rewarding career as musical scorer for movies.
- arranged the Philippine national anthem and the local classic Kataka-taka
for the Boston Pops Orchestra when it performed for the Philippine
Independence Night in Boston in 1972
- composed approximately 120 movie theme songs and more than 250
scores for movies
- His musical scoring career was capped by a Universal Pictures’ production
of No Man Is An Island starred by Jeffrey Hunter and Barbara Perez
- His musical scores for the movies Sa Bawat Pintig ng Puso (1964),
Pinagbuklod ng Langit (1969), Mga Anghel na Walang Langit (1970), and
Ang Alamat (1972) won for him “Best Musical Score” honors at the Filipino
Academy of Movies Arts and Sciences (FAMAS Awards)
- garnered the “Best Music Awards” for Bitter-Sweet at the 1969 Manila Film
Festival andAng Agila at Ang Araw at the 1973 Olongapo Film Festival.
 George Canseco

Canseco studied and graduated with a Liberal Arts degree at University of

the East in the Philippines. After graduation, he worked for the Philippines
Herald and the Associated Press as a journalist. He also free-lanced as a
scriptwriter for hire in Manila. Canseco was commissioned by former
Philippines First lady, Imelda Marcos, to compose the national tribute hymn,
"I Am a Filipino" (Ako Ay Pilipino).
Canseco wrote the classic "Kapantay Ay Langit", a theme from the award-
winning Motion Picture sung by Amapola (It was later popularized by Pilita
Corrales, which eventually became her signature song). It also had an
English version titled "You're All I Love" that was sung by American singer
Vic Dana that included some Tagalog lines. The song won the Manila Film
Festival Best Song Of The Year Award in 1972. Canseco followed it with an
English song entitled "Songs" exclusively for "Songs and Amapola" under
the Vicor Music Corporation Pioneer Label. Canseco's best-known
composition, however, was "Child", the English-language version of Freddie
Aguilar's signature song "Anák". He wrote for Sharon Cuneta and Basil
Valdez, and his songs were also recorded by Regine Velasquez, Zsa Zsa
Padilla, Pilita Corrales, Martin Nievera, and Kuh Ledesma. Rey Valera was
a lyricist of two of Canseco's songs.
Canseco credited film producer and Vicor Music Corporation owner Vic del
Rosario for his biggest break in the music industry. Canseco was elected
President of the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Inc.
in 1973, and also elected a Councillor for the First District of Quezon City in
1988.
He died on November 19, 2004, in Manila, Philippines due to cancer.
 Ángel "Cucco" Peña

Ángel "Cucco" Peña (born September 1, 1948) is a composer, musician,

singer, and record producer.
Born in Santurce, a district in the Puerto Rican capital San Juan, Peña and
his two siblings became interested in music at an early age. After completing
their primary and secondary education, the Peña brothers attended the
Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico. Following his graduation, Peña joined
the Panamericana Orchestra, which played various musical styles such as
bolero, blues, jazz, rock, pop and salsa.
After Peña left the band in 1980, he became a music director, producer,
composer and arranger for a wide variety of singers and styles, such as Willie
Colón, Olga Tañon, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Ricky Martin, Chayanne, Lissette,
Ricardo Arjona, Luis Fonsi, José Feliciano, Celia Cruz, Franco de Vita, Willy
Chirino, Juan Diego Florez, Marc Anthony, Lucecita Benítez, Glenn Monroig,
Ilan Chester, Gloria Estefan, Jerry Rivera and Lunna. Peña believes that
music can be seen from three perspectives: that of the artist, the music
company; and his own. He works with all three to produce the music he
believes people want to hear.
Peña produced Motivos ('Motives'), the first digitally produced Puerto Rican
album with the participation of Glenn Monroig and Lunna. In 1983, he
married Lunna and had three children, Gabriel, Juan and Ángel. They later
divorced and tragedy struck when their son died. In addition to music, Peña
now also produces television commercials.
 Leopoldo Rigo Silos, Sr.

Leopoldo Rigo Silos, Sr. was born on 06 March 1925 (place unknown).
Leopoldo was a famous music composer. One of his well known hits was
"Dahil Sa Isang Bulaklak" (Because Of One Flower). He passed away on 10
March 2015 at the age of 90.

Leopoldo Silos Sr. married Soledad 'Choling' Garcia. Soledad 'Choling'

Garcia was born on (date and place unknown). 'Choling' passed away in
1996. They lived in the United States for 28 years. Leopoldo Sr. and Choling
Garcia had the following children: