NAMCYA is 40.
The National Music Competitions for Young Artists shall be celebrating its forty years of existence with a concert CELEBRATING THE HARVEST, a fitting title and a homecoming of sorts of previous competition winners. The concert, in collaboration with the Cultural Center of the Philippines, is slated on August 25, at the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo at 8:00PM.
The NAMCYA, with the support of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, has been a principal instrument in discovering major music talents from all over the country. Its project involves some one million musicians, trainors and administrators, in a long and tedious process of selecting the best among them from all 17 regions, annually. NAMCYA has a three-fold program: discovering and developing young Filipino musicians from every region of the country, carried through annual competitions; workshops and training; as well as expanding Filipino music.
The concert shall feature four decades of Philippine classical music scene: the recent young winners like sopranos Gereberne Lozada and Myramae Meneses to seasoned performers like Alfonso “Coke” Bolipata and Rachelle Gerodias. Two big chamber music works shall be presented: Antonin Dvorak’s Serenade for Winds which shall feature the cream of the crop among young Filipino wind player; and Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet which shall likewise feature the best among Filipino string musicians.
The second part of the program shall offer a unique repertoire featuring four major works with four soloists celebrating the obvious numerological significance of the number: Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Four Wind soloists, the much loved Johann Sebastian Bach Concerto for Four Violins (which is an adaptation of the earlier Concerto for Four Violins by Vivaldi) and the late National Artist Lucio San Pedro’s Sa Mahal Kong Bayan. The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Olivier Ochanine will accompany the artists.