From the weight and thickness of Pablo A. Tariman’s Encounters in the Arts alone and the starry names that fill the contents page and photo folio, the author has veritably compiled his life’s work. And what a compilation it is, with a knockout cover featuring international pianist and national treasure Cecile Licad and art patron Nedy Tantoco in the inset.
Independently published by his outfit, Music News & Features, which also occasionally presents musical artists in concerts, the book follows Tariman’s first, Love, Life and Loss: Poems During the Pandemic, melancholy verses that reflect on the goings-on when the world was locked down and when the Tariman and Acosta families suffered the tragic loss of revolutionary poets Kerima and Ericson.
Profiles of Cecile Licad, Van Cliburn, three tenors and more
The latest collection, this time of prose, gathers the author’s profiles of such important names in the cultural scene as: Licad, Van Cliburn, Arthur Espiritu, Nelly Miricioiu, Kurt Masur, Otoniel Gonzaga, Basilio Manalo, the three tenors Pavarotti, Carreras and a bit on Domingo, Redentor Romero, Sarah Caldwell, Gerard Salonga, Claude-Michel Schonbeerg, Rowena Arrieta. That’s for the chapter on music alone. Other chapters on dance, cinema, theater, architecture, literature, new artists and cultural work are a Who’s Who in the performing and literary arts.
From this impressive work one can see that Tariman adheres to the Thomas Edison quotation, how genius is “one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” He said, “I don’t know what a genius is supposed to be, but when I am overwhelmed by a good performance, a good book, a good poem, I can only say there is a genius behind this ecstatic audience reaction.”
He continued, “Writing is pure personal effort. My writing is a simple response to something that moves me. I don’t know if you can call that inspiration. If nothing moves me, I can’t write. Yes, I believe in that Edison quote.”
Tariman’s journalism path began in his early 20s when he joined Philippines Graphic Magazine as a proofreader in 1971. After his duties were done, he asked editor Luis Mauricio for writing assignments. He covered the clan war between warlords in Vigan, Ilocos Sur (the Crisologos versus their relatives, the Singsons), the Constitutional Convention brouhaha, among others.
Then Ethel Ramos, the entertainment editor, asked him to cover showbiz, including Miss Redfeather coronation nights. That was how he got to write about actors like Rita Gomez, Jay Ilagan, Eddie Rodriguez. When Graphic closed because of martial law, Tariman went freelance before joining join the Cultural Center of the Philippines where he edited Arts Monthly while covering the arts for Times Journal and Celebrity Magazine.
He took an interest in music and the other arts after watching Licad, then 14, in Legazpi City, Albay where he was based in the late ’70s. He frequented going to Manila where he met other artists like Maniya Barredo, Placido Domingo, Eva Marton and others. He said, “I got stuck with performing artists who were the top artists at the time. One of them was the legendary Natalia Makarova who danced Giselle in Manila with Patrick Bissel. From music, I met personalities in ballet, theater, literature. I guess I was stuck in that beat until it became my forte: arts reporting. I got free access to the CCP courtesy of Tita Lucrecia ‘King’ Kasilag.”
How did he prepare himself for arts reporting and who did he admire in this area? Tariman answered, “In the mid-’60s, I read Anthony Morli in The Manila Times and Lito Molina who was also a jazz performer. Morli was such a big influence. Later in the ’80s, I read Rosalinda Orosa. I also read celebrated music critics abroad like Harold Schonberg, Irving Kolodin and many more. When you frequently read these music critics, you imbibe their taste as well. That’s when I get to determine what good and bad taste in music is like. But the greatest teacher is being exposed to live performances by great artists. These artists teach both listeners and fellow artists alike. If you get these music exposures for something like 50 years, you know who are the good ones and those merely trying hard. There are artists who succeed in looking like fashion models but fail miserably as performing artists.”
Rejection led to decision to be own publisher
He also took on the financial burden of being his own publisher. He explained, “The first rejection from a publishing house taught me good lessons. You discover publishers hardly watch concerts. How can they possibly appreciate what you are doing when your subject lives in the temple of the arts? It will take years to find out if you qualify as book author or not. Athough it is tough raising funds for book ventures, I decided to try it. I did a lot of preselling until I was able to raise funds. Encounters in the Arts was funded mainly by advance book sales. Of course, it pays a lot that your editor watches concerts regularly. It takes a lot to feel and understand the arts. You need sympathetic people in the arts to give birth to book projects like this.”
Asked which was harder to do, his first book of poems or this collection of prose, Tariman quickly replied, “The second book was harder to do. Imagine collecting stories for almost 50 years of covering the arts. The poems are just there in your memory bank. But collecting stories since 1975 after you saw your first live piano recital is tough. I had to labor through mountains of clippings and photographs. Moreover, the first book of poetry taught me a lot. It helped find the real me through words. The process is just as tough. But you learn by writing and refining your sensibilities.”
For the second printing, he will include the profiles of ballerina Yoko Morishita (“she has always been in the top five great dancers in my book” and soprano Evelyn Mandac.
Copies of the book will be available at Mt. Cloud Bookshop in Baguio and Solidaridad Bookshop in Ermita by mid-January.
Tariman said, “I don’t have too many outlets. I believe in direct selling. I keep reminding myself that the arts is appreciated by a minority. I notice most of the early buyers are those who frequently watch concerts.”
His best moments in this career of covering artists include meeting great artists like pianist Mitsuko Uchida and Pavarotti and Carreras. “There are many of them whose performances left me in awe of them.”
For his planned third book, he intends to show his “other side as a writer. I write poetry and short stories although they are not the kind that will win awards. I have another side as an essayist. My final encore is a book entitled Poems, Essays and Memories.”
