It's all about the classical music composers and their works from the last 400 years and much more about music. Hier erfahren Sie alles über die klassischen Komponisten und ihre Meisterwerke der letzten vierhundert Jahre und vieles mehr über Klassische Musik.
K-pop girl group ILLIT of HYBE Labels will be making their comeback to the music scene with a new album in October.
ILLIT will be releasing their second mini-album “I’ll Like You” on Oct. 21, or just in seven months after they came out with their first mini-album “Super Real Me” in March.
ILLIT (X)
ILLIT will release "I'll Like You" on Oct. 21 (Belift Lab)
While “Super Real Me” focused on capturing what they called “my true self,” “I’ll Like You” will tell the story of the “self” that becomes deeply immersed in the moment.
ILLIT will portray their candid charm in “I’ll Like You” as they encounter a “you” they wish to get closer to, navigate moments of doubt, and ultimately follow their heart to discover their own answers.
“Super Real Me” sold 380,056 copies in the first week of release, based on data from Korea’s Hanteo Chart.
The album entered the Billboard 200 chart, while the lead single “Magnetic” made history as the first-ever K-pop debut track to enter the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Official Singles Top 100 charts.
Recently, “Magnetic” surpassed 400 million streams on Spotify, becoming the fastest K-pop debut track to reach the milestone.
Pre-orders for “I’ll Like You” started on Sept. 23 with the official release at 6 p.m. KST on Oct. 21.
ILLIT's members are Yunah, Minju, Moka, Wonhee and Iroha.
Miss Manila will be hosted by former Miss Universe titleholdersCatriona GrayandR'Bonney GabrielandGMA Network’s Global EndorserGabbi Garcia.
Celebrating the epitome of being a true-blooded Manileña has never been this enchanting, as GMA Network proudly airs the Coronation Night of ‘Miss Manila 2024’ on Sunday, June 23.
Miss Manila will be hosted by former Miss Universe titleholders Catriona Gray and R'Bonney Gabriel and GMA Network’s Global Endorser Gabbi Garcia.
Among those who will serve as judges are GMA Network Senior Vice President Atty. Annette Gozon-Valdes, ABS-CBN Board Member Ma. Rosario “Charo” Santos-Concio, and Miss Universe Philippines 2024 Chelsea Manalo.
This year's coronation night brings together 24 aspiring candidates to find the “Manileña that embodies the values of empowerment and leadership to deliver a meaningful contribution to her life and to her fellow Manilans.”
Further, be captivated by spectacular performances from reigning queen Miss Manila 2023 Gabrielle Lantzer, Sparkle artist Thea Astley, Jeremy G., and David Young.
Ready to find out who will win the crown? Catch the Miss Manila 2024 Coronation Night on June 23, 2 p.m. on GMA Network and Kapuso Stream.
The festival’s revival was headlined by Singaporean jazz vocalist Michelle SgP, who performed alongside the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Rodel Colmenar.
After a hiatus since 2019, the Philippine International Jazz Festival (PI Jazz Fest ) made a vibrant comeback this year, symbolizing the resilient spirit of jazz and the enduring friendship between Singapore and the Philippines. The festival’s revival was headlined by Singaporean jazz vocalist Michelle SgP, who performed alongside the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Rodel Colmenar.
Sandra Lim-Viray, founder of the Philippine International Jazz Festival, sought to resurrect the event after its last show in 2019, and the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival’s return was fueled by the passion and support of Singapore’s Ambassador to the Philippines Constance See, who proposed a special concert to commemorate 55 years of diplomatic ties between Singapore and the Philippines. “Music transcends borders, and it’s the perfect way to mark this milestone in our bilateral relations,” she said.
Held on May 3, 2024, at Sofitel Manila Garden, the headline event of PI Jazz Fest 2024 ‘Colors of Jazz’ captivated a packed crowd. The event attracted nearly 400 attendees, including former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, government officials, diplomats, and business leaders.
Michelle SgP enchanted the audience with her original compositions, such as “Shark Filled Oasis,” “I Just Want to Be Me,” and “Serenity,” along with a dynamic cover of “Route 66.” Her soulful and versatile performance was complemented by the exquisite sounds of the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra. Her narrative interludes, where she shared the inspirations behind her songs, made the evening all the more special.
The festival also featured performances by notable Filipino jazz musicians, including the P.I Jazz All Stars (Richard Merk, Pat Castillo, Sandra Lim-Viray, Jeannie Tiongko, Emcy Corteza, Megan Herrera, Henry Katindig, Dix Lucero, Colby Dela Calzada, Mar Dizon, Ramon Guevara, Alvin Cornista and Johnny Alegre) and The Brass Munkeys. They highlighted the diverse and rich musical landscape of the Philippines.
In her address to the audience, Sandra Lim-Viray emphasized the instrumental role the Singapore Embassy played in reviving the PI Jazz Fest, acknowledging their support in making this year’s event possible. he PI Jazz Fest 2024 exemplified the power of music to bridge cultures and celebrate the enduring bond between two nations. This year’s collaboration was a reminder of jazz’s universal language and its ability to foster friendships across borders.
For its finale concert, the resident orchestra of the Cultural Center of the Philippines will feature violinist Diomedes Saraza Jr. as its guest soloist.
The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra
The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, the country’s primary orchestra, will take its last ‘Switch’ for its 39th concert season on April 19, 7:30 pm, at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit Makati.
For its finale concert, the resident orchestra of the Cultural Center of the Philippines will feature violinist Diomedes Saraza Jr. as its guest soloist.
Saraza Jr. is an active concert violinist, chamber musician, and avid educator. The former Manila Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster, Saraza is a well-established musical artist that has taken part in many international solo performances with different orchestras such as the Mannes Orchestra, New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Sichuan Philharmonic Orchestra to name a few. His extensive solo and chamber performances include prestigious venues that span from Philippines’ Cultural Center of the Philippines, New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, to Russia’s Tchaikovsky’s Concert Hall among others.
For its final concert, PPO music director and principal conductor Maestro Grzegorz Nowak will take the baton, leading the national orchestra in a night of Fete Francaise. The concert program includes: National Artist Lucresia Kasilag's Violin Concerto No. 1, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28, and Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5.
An instrumental in developing Philippine music and culture, the National Artist for Music was recognized for including indigenous Filipino instruments into orchestral productions. She has written more than 350 musical compositions that range from folksongs to opera to orchestral pieces. She was the founding mother of the Bayanihan Folk Arts Center for research and theatrical presentations and actively involved herself with the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company.
Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era. A child prodigy, he was already giving public concerts as a pianist and organist at a young age. One of his best-known works is the Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso, op. 28. composed in 1863, it was dedicated to Pablo de Sarasate, a Spanish virtuoso violinist, who frequently programmed it in his concert engagements, thus making it popular enough that other French composers made arrangements of it.
Completing the concert finale’s program is Schubert’s Symphony No. 5, a classic piece which is said to pay homage to masters Mozart and Haydn. Schubert deeply admired Mozart. His composition is frequently said to resemble the prolific and influential composer.
Ranked among the greatest composers in the history of Western classical music, Schubert and his work continues to be admired and widely performed. He was a composer during the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He has composed symphonies, masses, and piano works and is best remembered for his “lieder."
Tickets to PPO Concert VIII: Fete Francaise are priced at Php3,000 (Orchestra Center), Php2,000 (Orchestra Side), Php2,500 (Loge Center), Php1,500 (Loge Side), and Php800 (Balcony 1).
The PPO concert season is made possible with partners SSI Group, Inc., TBWA\SMP, Ascott Bonifacio Global City, and Lyf Malate Manila.
For more information, visit the CCP (www.culturalcenter.gov.ph) and follow the official CCP social media accounts on Facebook, X, and Instagram for the latest updates.
For its seventhconcert, thePPOwill haveaconcert-style performance of the Italian operaunder the baton ofPPOmusic director and principal conductor Maestro Grzegorz Nowak.
Filling the gap in the opera programming in the Philippines, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra present Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale as part of its 39th concert season on March 8, 7:30 pm, at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater.
For its seventh concert, the PPO will have a concert-style performance of the Italian opera under the baton of PPO music director and principal conductor Maestro Grzegorz Nowak.
With the Italian libretto by Giovanni Ruffini, Don Pasquale is one of the most popular opera buffas, along with Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Donizetti’s other opera The Elixir of Love. It is known for its bright and colorful vocal, and truthful depiction of characters and genuine emotions.
First premiered at the Théâtre Italien in Paris on Jan. 3, 1843, the three-act opera follows the story of a wealthy old bachelor named Don Pasquale who decides to take a wife and produce an heir to disinherit his nephew Ernesto for refusing to enter an arranged marriage. Dottore Malatesta, a friend of the Don, promises to help Ernesto and his widowed sweetheart Norina.
Things take a humorous turn when his scheming plans are thwarted by a series of comical misunderstandings and mistaken identities. Will Don Pasquale change his mind and realize that marriage is not for him, and allow the couple to happily live ever after?
Find out as opera soloists Dorota Sobieska (as Norina), Matheus França (as Don Pasquale), Byeong In Park (as Dr. Malatesta), Nomher Nival (as Ernesto), and Zadkiel John Yarcia (as Notary) bring to life its entertaining plot and memorable characters.
A talented soprano and stage director, Sobieska has participated in many opera productions and solo performances with an orchestra and piano. One of Ohio’s finest sopranos, her exceptional wide-ranging coloratura technique exemplifies glorious tones and passages with wonderful quality.
Brazilian bass with experienced remarkable growth in the solo landscape, França, is a product of the University of Brasília where he received his musical education. He also possesses a bachelor’s degree in Orchestral and Choral Conducting with excellence.
Alongside Dorota Sobieska and Matheus França, baritone Park will also take center stage. A student under acclaimed tenor Francisco Araiza at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart, Germany, Byeong In Park has been actively performing in opera productions and concerts around Europe and Asia. Currently based in the Philippines, Park continues to involve himself in most opera productions and concerts with several orchestras such as the PPO, the Manila Symphony Orchestra, the ABS-CBN Orchestra, and the Cebu Philharmonic Orchestra.
Another soloist with a deep, rich voice and an alumnus of the internationally acclaimed high school choir, Boscorale, baritone Yarcia is currently a student taking up a bachelor’s degree in music, majoring in voice, at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. The young baritone soloist received medals in the Opera and Broadway categories when he competed in the 2018 World Championships of Performing Arts in California, U.S.A.
Completing the cast is Nival, a first-prize winner in the vocal male category of the 2007 National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA) and the 2015 Jovita Fuentes Vocal Competition Male Category. A well-established tenor who has performed major roles in many CCP productions, he was also the recipient of the Mr. and Mrs. Tommy & Simonetta Steyer Encouragement Award at the prestigious Marcello Giordani Foundation International Vocal Competition 2013 in Vero Beach, Florida.
Tickets to PPO Concert VII: Don Pasquale are priced at Php3,000 (Orchestra Center), Php2,000 (Orchestra Side), Php2,500 (Loge Center), Php1,500 (Loge Side), and Php800 (Balcony 1).
The PPO concert season is made possible with partners SSI Group, Inc., TBWA\SMP, Ascott Bonifacio Global City, and Lyf Malate Manila.
Billed “Russian Masters,” the third concert of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra for its concert season this year was curated to pay tribute to some of the best Russian composers: Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Sergei Prokofiev.
Guest soloist Nikolay Khozyainov with Maestro Grzegorz Nowak
A good live performance is one that creates a connection between the artist and the audience, where the music not only sounds great but also feels emotionally resonant, and this was exactly what renowned Russian pianist Nikolay Khozyainov brought to Manila when he performed as a guest soloist recently.
“It was my first time to come to the Philippines, to perform with the PPO for the Filipino audience. Filipino people and musicians are very passionate and sophisticated people, it was a great joy to present the incredible masterpiece of Rachmaninov for the audience in Manila,” said the Russian pianist.
Billed “Russian Masters,” the third concert of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra for its concert season this year was curated to pay tribute to some of the best Russian composers: Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Sergei Prokofiev.
Leading the orchestra was PPO music director Maestro Grzegorz Nowak, with whom Khozyainov has worked with before. When the Maestro invited him to collaborate again, this time in Manila, Khozyainov was more than happy to oblige.
Maestro Grzegorz Nowak
Born in Blagoveshchensk in 1992, a city in the Russian Far East, Khozyainov began to play the piano at the young age of five after hearing classical music in a local music store. “I came up to my mother and told her: ‘I want to play music.’ I had a desire to make those incredible sounds myself. Piano is like an orchestra for me, I can express any instrument on it, including the human voice,” shared Khizyainov.
For a gifted pianist like Khozyainov, the most important aspect of every piece is the emotion that it conveys. Music, after all, has always been a way to bring people together. It has the power to influence and advocate significant movements in the world, especially in preventing conflict and promoting peace.
Performing Rachminoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the most amazing piano concertos in the piano repertoire, for the PPO Concert III, Khozyainov described the whole concerto as a masterpiece that “simply takes your breath away.”
“It was written in a very difficult period in Rachmaninoff’s life, he had depression and couldn’t compose anything. This piece is about overcoming desperate situations and getting to the light despite everything,” he expounded.
Nikolay Khozyainov
Khozyainov’s personal style when it comes to playing the piano involves going to the source of everything. For him, it is impossible to recreate a piece without knowing the sources.
“That is why I always study all existing manuscripts, all circumstances surrounding the creation of a musical piece. A printed score is good to have, but to really feel the piece with all your heart, you need to dive deeply into the manuscript. This way you can truly understand all the intentions of the composer.”
Passion is Khozyainov’s driving force. With recitals, concerto engagements, and sold-out performances on all continents at the world’s foremost stages, every performance is not just a display of skill, but an expression of his love for the art.
“It’s about bringing the essence of the music to life, making each note tell a story that the audience can relate to,” concluded Khozyainov.
Russian pianist Nikolay Khozyainov
Through the mastery of the great Russian composers, their music and stories will live on as part of humanity – celebrated and retold over and over again for the many years to come.
The next PPO concert, dubbed “Ode to Joy,” will premiere on December 8, 2023, 7:30pm, with Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in A and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, op.125, D minor. Filipino pianist and former CCP president Raul Sunico will perform with the PPO.
The PPO concert season is in partnership with SSI Group, Inc., TBWA\SMP, Ascott Bonifacio Global City, and Lyf Malate Manila.
For more information about the PPO’s 39th concert season and their upcoming shows, visit the CCP (www.culturalcenter.gov.ph) and follow the official CCP social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest updates.
