By PABLO TARIMAN
PIANIST Hector Martinez is the typical Filipino musician who got hooked on music, studied abroad, joined competitions and then, on the onset of the worldwide economic slump, had to find ways to survive to support his craft.
Now based in the United States, Martinez came home recently to play a well-nuanced program of Chopin’s Scherzos and Ballades at the RCBC Hall in Manila.
Martinez was a former prizewinner of the National Music Competition for Young Artists and the Manila edition of the Chopin Competition some years back. He won the Artists International’s Young Artists Auditions in New York in 2006 and as part of his prize, he was presented in a New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall.
“The Carnegie Hall experience was wonderful,” he said. “I invited as many people as I can and I sold out the place. I had friends lining up in the ticket booth trying to get in.”
He said he played religion-inspired music for the first half the program and dances in the second half. He did the first movement of “Messaien’s Vingt Regrads: Regards du Pere,” followed immediately by a Bach Chorale Prelude.
“The silence of the audience listening was intense,” Martinez said. “It even shocked me.”
Part of his program was Liszt’s fiendishly difficult “St. Francis Walking On Water” and the New York review went thus: “This period of Liszt’s is among his most difficult to interpret, especially when one is aiming to achieve a ‘spiritual’ outcome. Mr. Martinez did a fine job of entering into Liszt more contemplative world. Played in the right vein, it was never bombastic.”
Martinez related how he now survives as a musician at a time when artists abroad have a hard time making both ends meet.
“In order to survive in music, one has to teach,” he said. “One has to play gigs.”
He shared his work-a-day world: “I freelance. My weekends start Monday evening till Wednesday evening. On Sundays, I am the church organist at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Bronx and play at three masses.
“I teach elementary music at the parochial school also at St. Ann’s. I also have private students around the city. On Friday afternoons, I conduct and teach rondalla to kids in Brooklyn. We are called F.A.M.E. (Filipino Arts and Music Ensemble). I have 45 kids of Filipino decent whom I teach banduria, octavina and guitars out in Midwood, Brooklyn.”
Martinez said he would arrange music for his students, whose grade level varies from Grade 3 to college. They sometimes get invitations to play, including accompanying the choirs at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on special occasions.
“I realized I can do a lot in the field of music except play the tuba!” he said. “I had to learn the organ to play for church. My favorites are funerals.”
Martinez said he sings the “Ave Maria” while accompanying himself on the organ. Sometimes, his “captive audience” could not help but be moved to tears, he said.
He noted that church organists in midtown can get up to as much as $200 for one funeral and they would be playing mostly the same songs.
“I heard from other friends that they do not have as many gigs nowadays because companies would have less parties,” he observed. “But since I work in a school, there are always kids who want to do some music lessons–guitar, voice, piano.”
Surprisingly, Martinez does not come from a music-oriented family. His mother just wanted all her children to be well-rounded and they turned out as such in academics, music, sports and the arts.
He recalled: “We took acting (lessons) with Repertory Philippines in the summer. We had art classes during the summer growing up. We played tennis. My mom took voice lessons at the UP (University of the Philippines) Extension classes while waiting for us kids finish our music lessons. My sister took up guitar and my brother the flute.”
“My dad jokes around that we already have what it takes to be a full-time band with my mother as the vocalist and my father as the MONEY-ger because of his Peso-nality,” he smiled.
His advice to young musicians who want to study abroad is to try the competitions and chamber music summer camps as part of one’s learning experience.
“Find a nice, small competition that is within your grasp,” he said. “You don’t have to do the Chopin International or the Van Cliburn. Do something small. Don’t get stressed if you don’t get to win.”
He further suggested that they hang out with international students, saying that part of the fun in studying abroad is learning other cultures and other ways of thinking.
“And when we see how different other people are, we see how different and unique we Filipinos are!” Martinez said. “It is when you leave one’s country and see it at a distance do we get a better understanding of it. I think that is what Rizal picked up when he went to Spain and Germany.”