JAYA, POPS FERNANDEZ AND KUH LEDESMA OPM divas look forward to girls' getaway to Coachella

The country's top OPM queens Pops Fernandez, Kuh Ledesma and Jaya are due to perform in Southern California in November.

By Tessa Mauricio-Arriola, Manila Times

It isn't just the immeasurable Filipino community in SoCal (Southern California) that's looking forward to the day and date of November 12 — that is, the much-anticipated performance of the Philippines' top three music divas at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Coachella, California. Queen of Soul Jaya, Concert Queen Pops Fernandez and Pop Diva Kuh Ledesma are just as eager to get the concert started for a number of reasons.

The first is, of course, the honor and opportunity to spend time with our countless kababayan in the US after the long pandemic, while the second reason is more personal.

In a digital interview, Pops — who had just completed an American concert tour with the all-male Hitmakers (Nonoy Zuniga, Marco Sison, Hajji Alejandro and Rey Valera) over the summer — told The Manila Times, "It's going to be a different kind of fun for us compared to what I experienced with the boys."

With a glint in her eye, she continued, "Yon kasi, magulo talaga — tawanan all the time — but very male ang humor. Like I said before, I really had so much fun with the four of them on the road, but this one — I have to say it's more of the bonding with the girls that I'm really excited about."

The Concert Queen explained that much as the public sees them together now and then on TV or in pre-pandemic shows, she, Jaya and Kuh haven't been able to catch up in a very long time now.

Of course, Jaya now lives in the US, while Kuh prefers to be tucked away on her farm when not working.

Pops, on the other hand, constantly shuffles between Manila and the US to be with family on both sides of the globe.

"Iba kasi when we're all together doing a show abroad. We really get to talk about life, our kids, our plans, and I always come out of it learning something from the both of them."

Nodding in agreement, Kuh interjects, "Having fallen in love and coming out of those relationships, we can really relate to each other. But while it was all tears before, ngayon iba na ha. We've long moved on and happy na kami!"

For her part, Jaya simply longs for friends and colleagues from here and just can't believe her luck that she'd be in a show again with the Concert Queen and the Pop Diva of the Philippines.

The special concert is fittingly titled Three Divas. According to its showrunner, Enteng Perez, "This is produced by New Paradise Entertainment and Fantasy Springs Casino."

Very confidently, he added, "Three Divas will reactivate the Filipino concert scene in the Coachella Valley again. It's been a while since there were Filipino shows in this market, so Jaya, Pops and Kuh will definitely jumpstart more shows in the desert region of Southern California."

Coachella Valley is known to have big music festivals in the US, and the fact is not lost on the three OPM queens.

It simply adds to the excitement that keeps growing in their diaphragms. Seasoned as they are, all three divas always savor working with each other. Their individual achievements, both in their professional and personal lives, have taken them far beyond the need to compete with fellow performers.

"Exposure-wise, we'll have many production numbers together as a trio, but we will each get 20 minutes where bahala na kami what to sing and do," shared Kuh.

Filipinos in SoCal should therefore expect this one-night-only to be one for the books filled with the three divas' most memorable hits. There will surely be "Dahil Tanging Ikaw" and "Wala na bang Pag-ibig" from Jaya; "Don't say Goodbye and "Bakit Ngayon Ka lang Dumating" from Pops; and, "I Think I'm in Love" and "'Til I Met You" from Kuh, just to name a few.

With that, there's just one more thing left to say. And that is: "Please, Three Divas, promise to bring your show to Manila too."

Tickets to the US concert are available via VP Entertainment with phone number 702-8569723.

José Mari Chan's Greatest OPM Medley by Filipino-American Symphony Orchestra

José Mari Chan's Greatest OPM Medley by Filipino-American Symphony Orchestra (FASO)

100,325 views  Aug 22, 2022  Filipino-American Symphony Orchestra celebrates José Mari Chan's Music held at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA with Maestro Robert Shroder conducting.  August 20, 2022.

Filipino American Symphony Orchestra

Andrew Lloyd Webber: Jesus Christ Superstar Arr. Henry Mancini

Andrew Lloyd Webber: Jesus Christ Superstar Arr. Henry Mancini

12,198 views  Feb 1, 2020  Andrew Lloyd Webber: Jesus Christ Superstar (Arranged for orchestra by Henry Mancini)

Novaya Russiya Orchestra

John McLaughlin Williams, Conductor

Pianist in tears!!!. Most moving piano performance.

Pianist in tears!!!. Most moving piano performance.

39,726,193 views  Mar 31, 2015  Pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii bursts into tears when he plays at Carnegie Hall his own composition "Elegy for the Victims of the Tsunami of March 11, 2011 in Japan".

How to Listen to Classical Music: General Ideas

How to Listen to Classical Music: General Ideas

328,132 views  Jan 26, 2018  A multi-part guide on how to get THE MOST out of classical music. 

This is the first part of a short series of videos on how to listen to classical music. While many people use classical music for studying, relaxing and relaxation, or sleeping, far fewer people actually enjoy listening actively. Due to the difficult state of music education, most people don't know how to follow a symphony, or how the best composers wrote and structured their works. While it has been proven that classical music can be beneficial to the mental development of babies and kids, I believe it has life enhancing qualities for all ages, and as an art form deserves to be shared, whether through outreach, or tutorials and lessons like these.

Classical music, at its best, can be richly emotional, and I believe that its emotion can be unlocked by anyone willing to follow these guides through. The principles that I will go through apply to all music, whether live in concert or on CD or Spotify, and whether you're listening to Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Brahms, Chopin, Wagner, Verdi, or Puccini, and whether listening to Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Orchestral, Choral, or Chamber music. 

Many programs suggest that learning an instrument such as the piano, violin, guitar, cello, oboe, clarinet, or singing in a choir, is crucial for music appreciation. Well I think these skills, as well as learning to read sheet music and training your ear, can be extremely useful, I believe that almost anyone can learn to enjoy classical music with minimal training and music theory. Therefore, this short series will be very light on music theory, and will only use it when necessary to highlight certain forms such as sonata, rondo,  and other typical forms. 

While I originally got into classical music via movie scores and film composers such as Howard Shore, John Williams, and Hans Zimmer, I discovered this way of listening which has completely changed the way I approach and enjoy classical music. I hope through these videos I can share that with you.

1:20 / 5:29

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

2,421,420 views Mar 18, 2017 Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group I Left My Heart In San Francisco · Beegie Adair I'll Take Romance ℗ 2002 Green Hill Productions Released on: 2002-01-01 Producer: Jack Jezzro Associated Performer, Piano: Beegie Adair Associated Performer, Bass Guitar: Roger Spencer Associated Performer, Drums: Chris Brown Associated Performer, Chamber Orchestra: The Jeff Steinberg Orchestra Composer: George Cory Author: Douglass Cross Auto-generated by YouTube.

Moon River - Breakfast at Tiffanys - Desayuno con Diamantes

HAUSER - Adagio (Albinoni)

80,763,263 views Nov 20, 2017 Follow HAUSER: https://www.instagram.com/hausercello https://www.facebook.com/hauserofficial https://www.tiktok.com/@hauser_official Hauser performing Adagio by Albinoni with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra at his classical solo concert at the Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb, October 2017. Elisabeth Fuchs, conductor Pavao Mašić, organ Arrangement by Hauser and Filip Sljivac Filmed and edited by MedVid production Sound and mixing by Morris Studio 2CELLOS

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Second Waltz

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Second Waltz

13,093,609 views  Jun 17, 2018  To se nevrati - use to say the Czechs being in a nostalgia mood and thinking on something what passed definitely. It will never be the same...

Making the clip I used scenes from movies The Leopard  (Il Gattopardo) by Luchino Visconti from 1963.  Anna Karenina by Maurizio Millenotti from 1997, Anna Karenina by Joe Wright from 2013, Fanfan & Alexandre by Alexandre Jardin from 1993, War and Peace, TV series from 2007, and - what has to be mentioned especially -  The Waltz of Dagmara and Artur (their 1. wedding dance) form 2011.

Lea Salonga - On My Own (Les Misérables) [720p]

Lea Salonga - On My Own (Les Misérables) [720p]

27,400,986 views  Jun 11, 2009  Les Misérables 10th Anniversary Concert at the Royal Albert Hall

Lea Salonga (Éponine)

Conductor: David Charles Abell

Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Music

SONG

Building the Barricade / On My Own (Live)

ARTIST

Les Misérables - 10th Anniversary Concert Cast

ALBUM

Les Misérables: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall

Smokey Mountain Reunion 2020: Paraiso/Better World

Smokey Mountain Reunion 2020: Paraiso/Better World

1,149,680 views  May 4, 2020  The members of the group Smokey Mountain reunite virtually for Bayanihan Musikahan on May 3, 2020 with a medley of "Paraiso" and "Better World."

Composed and Arranged by National Artist Ryan Cayabyab

Video Editing by Stephen Viñas

Vocals by:

James Coronel, Geneva Cruz, Tony Lambino, Jeffrey Hidalgo, Jayson Angangan, Chedi Vergara, Star Santos, Anna Fegi-Brown

Don't forget that you too can join in on our fight against COVID-19 in the safety of your own homes. By sending in your donations, you restore the bayanihan spirit. Please Connect through: 

pymy.co/pbsp 

(Mastercard, Visa, JCB, PayMaya) 

donation.ph/pbsp 

(BPI Credit/Debit cards, GCash, GrabPay) 

give2asia.org/pbsp 

(Donate in US Dollars) 

Know more about Bayanihan Musikahan through our official website: bayanihanmusikahan.org 

DSWD SB-SP 00016-2020

PHILIPPINE BUSINESS FOR SOCIAL PROGRESS

With National Artist for Music Maestro Ryan Cayabyab at the helm, Bayanihan Musikahan gathers Pinoy musical artists online through marathon singing, as a way to bring the nation together in the spirit of bayanihan, and to direct it towards aiding our most vulnerable communities.

#SmokeyMountain #Paraiso #BetterWorld

Philippine Madrigal Singers: Paraiso

Philippine Madrigal Singers: Paraiso

170,069 views  Premiered Jul 2, 2022  Paraiso

Ryan Cayabyab, Philippine National Artist for Music

composer

Christopher Borela

Ryan Cayabyab, Philippine National Artist for Music

arranger

Philippine Madrigal Singers 2022

Mark Anthony A. Carpio, choirmaster

"And if I could see a single bird

What a joy!

I try to write some words and create

A simple song to be heard

By the rest of the world"

excerpt from Paraiso with words and music by Ryan Cayabyab, National Artist for Music, and arranged by Chris Borela

Paraiso is one of twelve songs featured in ALPAS: Awit at Letra ng mga Pambansang Alagad ng Sining. ALPAS: Awit at Letra ng mga Pambansang Alagad ng Sining is brought to you by Sentro Rizal of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Performed by the Philippine Madrigal Singers, the album features the music, lyrics, and arrangements of selected National Artists of the Philippines. It carries these beloved works to the present with brand new recordings of some of the most beloved Filipino works.

Listen to Paraiso among many others in ALPAS, available on all major streaming platforms now!

A Glimpse Into the World of the Music Session

by Oliver Pashley, Interlude

  

Recording Film and TV Music Behind-the-Scene

Cast your mind back to the last movie or TV show you watched. Chances are there was music of some kind, enhancing the mood, providing suspense at cliffhangers, setting the scene or underscoring a poignant moment. Wherever we look in the media, music is everywhere, but did you ever wonder who exactly plays the instruments on these recordings, or how the process works?

You’d be forgiven for not giving it a second thought; music for media, after all, is there to enhance the overall experience, and arguably is most effective when it doesn’t stick out too much. There is, however, a whole industry behind recording live musicians and getting music ready for picture.

In a place like London, recording studios can be found all over the city, ranging from humble setups in converted warehouses to grand institutions with international reputations, like Abbey Road and AIR Studios.

The studios themselves don’t employ musicians. This job is outsourced to external booking agents, known as ‘fixers’. The musicians in the fixers’ books often have heaps of experience and are some of the best players in their field. The pace of recordings is fast and high-pressured, so being engaged for a recording session requires you to be at the top of your game. In London, session musicians can also be found freelancing in orchestras, in shows on the West End, touring with chamber groups – for many musicians, session work makes up just one part of their career.

Abbey Road Studio One: The world-famous studio where many film soundtracks have been recorded, including the soundtracks to the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Empire Strikes Back

One of the great things about doing recording sessions as a classical musician is the variety of music you come into contact with. I’ve been in orchestras and ensembles recording music for films, TV dramas, nature documentaries, pop albums, art house movies… the range is so broad, and it keeps the work endlessly interesting.

For film and TV, we musicians come into the production process relatively late. A movie’s soundtrack isn’t finalised until pretty much the final edit, seeing as scores and parts have to be made for a large number of people. Changing and editing orchestral scores is a time-consuming (and costly) process, so it’s often left as late as possible in order that (hopefully) the music can simply be recorded and lined up with finalised visuals that won’t change much if at all, to avoid costly adjustments to the soundtrack.

Of course, there is the magic of editing (it is possible to record a whole orchestra and then chose and change it at your whim) but broadly speaking, recording sessions happen mostly towards the end of production, rather than the beginning, and there is something exciting about being part of a process much bigger than yourself. Sometimes there are screens in the studio that playback footage as you’re recording, and to see the show coming to life in real-time can be quite thrilling.

Not every soundtrack you will have heard will have been recorded live, however. The landscape of recordings has changed dramatically in recent decades, spurred on by huge advances in technology. As software has become more and more sophisticated, commercial ‘sound libraries’ have flooded the market, letting composers create incredibly realistic-sounding scores just by using a bank of prerecorded sounds.

While these can be incredibly useful, enabling productions without the budget to accommodate live orchestral setups to achieve realistic-sounding results, there is still very much a place for live recording, and it is still very much part of the production process for many TV shows, movies, video games and other soundtracks.

AIR Studios Exterior: The outside of Abbey Road’s less well-known cousin, AIR Studios. You’d be forgiven for walking past
without even realising it’s there; AIR has had many previous bases, but this converted church has been its home since 1992.

The level of responsiveness and adaptation you can request of professional musicians is something that, in my opinion, cannot be equaled by any sound bank. It’s commonplace in sessions to be asked to play several takes in a different way – the director or music supervisor might want it to sound more angry, or calm, or glassy, excited, soulless… the list goes on. That is much easier to achieve with a human being who can respond on the spot rather than having to recalibrate a preset batch of sounds.

Session work, while sometimes stressful, can be incredibly rewarding. It may take a while to get into that particular world, at least in the UK, but it offers interesting and challenging opportunities that can fit nicely into a freelancing career.

Ever wondered what actually happens in a recording session, or how different they are from a live performance? Read on to discover more…

Barbara Hannigan on mentoring the next generation of classical music stars

Barbara Hannigan, 51, is an internationally renowned soprano and conductor. Picture: Alamy

By Sophia Alexandra Hall

@sophiassocials

 

The legendary Canadian soprano, Barbara Hannigan, scooped the award for ‘Artist of the Year’ at the Gramophone Awards 2022 earlier this week. We got a chance to speak to her about how mentoring influenced her career as an artist and how she wants to pass on her ingrained feeling of ‘hope’ to the next generation of classical stars.

Canadian soprano and conductor, Barbara Hannigan, was in London earlier this week for the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2022, where she won the Contemporary Music Award for the fourth time, and was also honoured as ‘Artist of the Year’.

Her win at the ceremony, also known as the ‘Oscars of classical music’, is hardly a surprise for those who have followed her unparalleled musical career over the last few decades. As a soprano, she has sung at the world’s leading opera houses, and has a particular mastery for contemporary music, which she has prominently championed throughout her career.

As a conductor, she’s directed some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, and has recently had her current contract as the principal guest conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra’s extended until 2025. Earlier this year, Hannigan was also announced as the London Symphony Orchestra’s first Associate Artist, contributing to the orchestra’s choice of repertoire for the next three years.

Alongside her impressive CV, Hannigan has an evident passion for helping and inspiring the next generation of young classical stars and runs two mentorship schemes for upcoming artists – Equilibrium Young Artists, and Momentum: our Future Now.

“I’ve had a lot of mentors,” Hannigan told Classic FM backstage at the awards. The 51-year-old musician admitted she had a “bit of a talent” for finding mentors earlier in her career, and wanted to encourage others to do the same. 

However, as her career developed, Hannigan realised she may have been in the minority when it comes to finding mentors.

“I’ve noticed sometimes that young artists can be too shy to ask,” Hannigan told Classic FM. “And some leading artists don’t realise how valuable their mentorship is.

“I think artists love to be generous, but they genuinely don’t realise just how many young people would benefit from their insights and would love their mentorship.”

In 2020 Hannigan set up ‘Momentum: our future, now’, a collective of leading solo artists (singers, instrumentalists, conductors) who have pledged to act now to support young artists in the first substantial phase of their career.

Leading artists share their main-stage performance opportunities with a young, professional singer or instrumentalist, and conductors bring on a young conductor as an assistant. Hannigan describes the scheme as her way of helping set up these relationships, “sort of speed-dating if you will”, she remarked.

Notably, ‘Momentum’ was started during the pandemic, and the loss of talent from the industry due to lockdowns across the globe has clearly saddened Hannigan.

“[The industry] did lose a lot of young artists who went on to other things, because the uncertainty during the pandemic kind of brought home to them that they may not be able to go through with their dream. And that’s very sad.

“I hope that an initiative like Momentum has given hope, and I say hope a lot, because it’s part of me. I feel Momentum has started a dialogue as to what it is to support our younger colleagues – in all fields, not just in music.

“This type of mentoring can be done in any industry, in any field, from medicine to law, to business, and technology.”

Hannigan hopes the audiences, who are coming and seeing these young artists perform with leading ones, will leave the concert thinking, ‘that was great to see a young artist up there. How can I do something similar for a young professional in my industry? How can I help?’.

Barbara Hannigan accepts the ‘Artist of the Year’ award at the Gramophone Awards 2022. Picture: Telling Photography

Hannigan’s other scheme, Equilibrium Young Artists, has been running since 2017, and has produced an impressive alumni of musicians, with a focus on singers.

This February, Hannigan was named an LSO Associate Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra. As part of her role, she’ll be appearing with the leading orchestra in March 2023, alongside an Equilibrium alumni, Greek soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou, who Hannigan speaks highly of.

A big win for Hannigan has been seeing young artists who have been part of both Momentum and Equilibrium, go on and bring up other young artists as they progress in their careers. She touched on this during her acceptance speech for the ‘Artist of the Year’ award, sponsored by Raymond Weil, at the Gramophone Awards.And in terms of what advice she has for young people, across all industries, looking to find mentorship for their careers Hannigan told Classic FM, “Don’t be afraid to reach out to the person that you think may be able to help you.

“Because if you don’t reach out to them, you never know if they’ll say yes or no. And if you don’t have a direct contact to that person, find your one degree of separation.”

And most importantly, “don’t be shy!”.

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood