Paco Park presents The Bicaldo Sisters

THE BICALDO SISTERS OPENS
Paco Park Presents’
JUNE SKED

Paco Park Presents goes instrumental this Friday, June 01, 2007, starting at 6:00 p.m. with bandurria player Rowena Bicaldo and violinist Gemma Bicaldo as featured guests. Joining them are pianists PWU Dean Harold Galang and Madeline Jane Banta. This concert kicks-off a month-long partnership with the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA), in Makiling, Laguna, which is celebrating its Ruby Jubilee this year. Ms. Thea Perez is program host.

The Philippine High School for the Arts, nestled on the slopes of Mt. Makiling in Los Banos, Laguna, is a specialized secondary level institution for young students who are particularly gifted in the arts. Its scholarship program is given to "exceptionally gifted and talented children in the arts who will be given special training in their chosen field of interest." The school is so situated to afford its gifted young students concentration in their study in a healthy unspoiled environment.

The Bicaldo sisters – Rowena and Gemma, and pianist Harold Galang are alumni of PHSA. Rowena Bicaldo completed her Diploma in Creative and Performing Musical Arts (DCPMA) Asian Music in 1998 and her Bachelor’s degree in Musicology at the University of the Philippines College of Music in Diliman, Quezon City. She is an expert in playing many traditional musical instruments, among them, the Maguindanao and Maranao kulintang, Manobo ahong, Kalinga bamboo jaw’s harp, polychordal zither, nose flute and lip-valley flute, Japanese koto, Indonesian gamelan and angklung. She is a music assistant and bandurria player of the Bayanihan Philippines Folk Dance Company since 1998, and is halfway through her graduate studies at the Philippine Women’s University taking up Ethnomusicology. Gemma Bicaldo graduated from PHSA in 1996, under the tutelage of Mrs. Rizalina Buenaventura, the wife of the late National Artist Col. Antonino Buenaventura. She took her Bachelor of Music degree at the UST Conservatory of Music, under Prof. Sergio Esmilla, Mr. Reginald Pineda and Mr. Proceso Yusi. She was the concertmaster of the UST Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 1998 and was a member of the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra. She is, at present, a member of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and one of the violin instructors at the Foundation for Culture and the Arts of Angono. Harold Galang is presently the Dean of the Philippine Women’s University College of Music. He is a concert pianist, choir conductor, music educator and a piano collaborating artist. He finished his Master’s degree in 1995 at the Musashino Music Academy in Tokyo, Japan and took up piano master classes at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. A winner of three national music competitions – National Music Competitions for Young Artists, the Piano Teacher’s Guild of the Philippines Concerto Auditions and the First Philippine Chopin Piano Competitions, Galang is presently a member of the Commission on Higher Education Technical Panel for Music and Music Education.

For this Friday’s concert, these three PHSA alumni have prepared the following programme: MAYON FANTASIA DE CONCERTO (Buencamino); PRAELUDIUM AND ALLEGRO and LIEBESFREUD (Kreisler); CAVATINA (Raff); LEGENDE (Wieniasky); SARUNG BANGGI (Arr: Romero); BUNDOK BANAHAW (Arr: Biares); HABANERA FILIPINA NO. 2 (Vallejo); ILANG-ILANG (Molina); MOONLIGHT IN THE PHILIPPINES (Matias); CAVATINA (Abelardo); HATINGGABI (Molina) and KUNG HINDI MAN (Abelardo).

*All skeds may be subject to change without prior notice.