Cecile Licad nominated for National Artist
After her well-received Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) concert last March 19 at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila, Cecile Licad resumes her solo recital program in Connecticut, USA, on Sept. 22, and at the Carnegie Hall in New York City on Dec. 5.
The Sept. 22 recital is presented by the Danbury Concert Association as its opening season attraction at the Visual and Performing Arts Center on the Western Connecticut State University Campus.
In a latest development, the Club Bulakeño—through its board chair Danny Jacinto—has announced Licad has been officially nominated as National Artist for Music.
On her mother’s side, Licad comes from the Buencamino musical clan of San Miguel, Bulacan, the hometown of composer Nicanor Abelardo and National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario.
Club Bulakeño has pointed out that Licad has been known as the country’s “national treasure” since age 9, when she debuted at the Philamlife Theater with the University of the East (UE) Student Orchestra under National Artist for Music Antonino Buenaventura in 1969. After her Philamlife debut, Buenaventura said Licad’s talent only comes once every 100 years.
Cecile Licad after the Met concert in March —CONTRIBUTED
Many firsts
Club Bulakeño added that Licad has made history by becoming the first Filipino to receive the Leventritt Gold Medal in New York, the same award that went to piano icons Van Cliburn and Gary Graffman.
She is the first Filipino pianist to work with distinguished orchestras and legendary conductors around the world, namely the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado and Sir Georg Solti, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa, the Russian State Academy Orchestra under People’s Artist of Russia Mark Gorenstein, the London Symphony Orchestra under Kurt Masur, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Andre Previn.
She played an unprecedented 18 concerts with the great composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies conducting the Schottische Philharmonic throughout the US, among others.
Distinguished music lecturer David Dubal, in his radio show “The Piano Matters,” referred to Licad as “the great Filipina piano artist who has perhaps the largest technical equipment and musical imagination of any living pianist.”
Club Bulakeño further noted how Licad embodies the country’s highest ideals in the humanities when she became recipient of the Presidential Medal of Merit by President Corazon C. Aquino for excellence in the arts, and the Pamana ng Lahi award from President Benigno Aquino III.
Apart from being a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’s (CCP) Gawad CCP Para Sa Sining in the field of music, she is the only Filipino pianist with a big body of recordings both in solo recitals and with famous orchestras around the world. “We believe Licad epitomizes the Filipino artistic achievement at the highest level, whose performances were reviewed by distinguished music critics in Manila and around the world,” Club Bulakeño said.
Licad is also the first Filipino soloist of the London Symphony under Previn to win the Grand Prix Du Disque from Poland’s Chopin Society for their recording of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
In her latest engagement with the PPO last March, Licad drew unanimous approval from both critics and audiences alike.
PPO music director Gregorz Novak said working with Licad was an exhilarating experience. “She’s a brilliant pianist with perfect technique and command of the instrument, as well as a passionate musician whose interpretations move the orchestra and the audience.”
Club Bulakeño noted that Licad has shared her talents in well-received nationwide outreach concerts since age 14, in the cities of Zamboanga, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Legazpi, Naga, Davao, Tuguegarao, Baguio, Roxas, in Paoay and Currimao in Ilocos Norte, and in Nueva Ecija, among others.
Over the years, this writer has brought the pianist to different outreach destinations in the country, wanting to give his friends their first Licad experience.
‘Pablo Neruda of music’
In 2002, while preparing for Licad’s recital at St. Paul University in Tuguegarao City, I took a quick bus ride to Ilagan City in Isabela to ask the poet-priest Paco Albano to watch the concert. Although he had a few of Licad CDs, he had never seen Licad in a live performance.
The good priest emailed me after the concert, and I quote here in parts:
“Thank you for snatching me to experience a Cecile Licad recital. Quite an experience, I tell you!
“Surely God has consecrated her hands to play music, especially that of the classical masters. In playing the masters, Cecile is a musician who makes one believe that the world is made of sound—sometimes as impromptu as a surprise, sometimes a waltz, sometimes nocturne, sometimes scherzo, or whatever great art rightly tells us.
“Indeed, her music, like life, is about possibilities. Who was playing that night? Cecile the piano, or the piano Cecile? I think it was the piano that brought out of Cecile the music, especially in the nature of mysticism of the two legends of St. Francis (Liszt).
“The music overflowed from her mouth, her eyes, her entire body, yes, into me/us. And was I myself playing Cecile and the piano? The encores were revealing. Cecile was not only great with the big scores, but also with the ditties. She reminded me of Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda’s ‘Odes Elementales.’ The poet makes yellow birds, chestnuts, tomatoes, watches look extraordinarily beautiful. Cecile is the Pablo Neruda of music.”
Meanwhile, feminist and political activist Princess Nemenzo, who raved over the March Met performance, said, “She should be named National Artist for Music! She has represented Filipino artistry and excellence over decades on the world stage, until the present, and manifested as well Filipino women’s capacity for achieving their best.”
For information on the Sept. 22 concert in Connecticut, call +12037482177 or email clarinetkt@aol.com.
