By ELIZABETH LOLARGA
ALL it took was for him to hear, at age five, an older sister play Chopin’s “Minute Waltz” on the piano, and Matthew Calderon was well on his way.
Calderon, 16, lone winner of the International Mozart Piano Competition in 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand , in Category B (age 13-17 years old), where he placed second, will be seen in a solo recital Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at Ayala Museum, Makati City. This event is the last of the Manila Chamber Orchestra Foundation’s Young Artists Series.
He chose this program upon the advice of his teacher, Prof. Mary Anne Espina: Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 3 from Book 1 in C sharp major, BWV 848; Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13,Pathetique; Schumann’s Fantasiestucke, Op. 12; Debussy’s 3 Selections from Preludes, Book 1: No. 3, Le vent dans la plaine (The Wind in the Plain), No. 9, La sérénade interrompue (Interrupted Serenade) and No. 12, Minstrels.
“My teacher and I chose pieces that would showcase my versatility as a pianist. My personal favorite is Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, and I’m happy that my teacher is allowing me to play all eight pieces in the set. This is my favorite piece because I can relate more to his works that are very bold, poetic and exciting,” Calderon related.
There were no serious musicians in his family but there was a lot of encouragement from his parents to continue his piano and music studies.
The boy had Jerome Baes for his first piano teacher until he was 11. When he turned 11, Baes encouraged him to audition for the Philippine High School for the Arts to study music formally. He was accepted. From then on, he has been with Espina of the UST Conservatory of Music.
Now on his fourth year at the PHSA where he has been a consistent honor student academically and artistically, he said, “I figured out that I’m going to pursue music in college when I was in my first year at PHSA where I’m a national government scholar. There I’ve realized many things, and these things merged into one thought–that music is really for me.”
Apart from his studies at the school atop Mt. Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna, Calderon has also taken master classes with Fr. Manuel Maramba, Najib Ismail, Aries Caces, Ross Salvosa, Reynaldo Reyes, Victor Asuncion, Thomas Hecht, Albert Tiu, Carmencita Sipin-Aspiras, Charisse Baldoria, Anna Kijanowska, and Rolf Dieter Arens.
He has played chamber music with musicians his age and in solo recitals of instrumentalists and vocalists at the National Arts Center of the Philippines and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
He was among the 11 other young pianists across Asia who were at this year’s Summer Piano Institute at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore where he had master classes with Thomas Hecht and Tiu. Since 2010, he has been seen in piano festivals like the sixth Paulinian Music Festival and the Piano Teachers’ Guild of the Philippines (PTGP) Annual Piano Festivals and workshops. He has performed at the Best of PTGP Piano Festivals at the Concert at the Park and Paco Park Presents for the past three years. In 2011, he placed fourth in PTGP’s “Soundscapes” competition.
Last year, he participated in PTGP’s grand concert “Forte at 40” at the CCP Main Theater wherein 40 pianos were featured onstage.
He described his preparation for the Mozart competition as “really tough. I had more regular piano lessons with Professor Espina than usual. I had to internalize my pieces very well, which have emotional and mature dwellings beyond my age. Most of all, I had to condition myself very well to avoid technicalities.”
Describing how he felt during the competition, he said, “I was very, very nervous because this was my first international piano competition, and I didn’t have much of an idea of what was going to happen.”
He added, “I didn’t have the opportunity to listen to the other participants during the semi-finals, but I heard them during their rehearsals, and they were very seasoned. A talented Malaysian and I were selected to proceed to the final round from among the nine participants. After the finals, I won second prize; no first and third prizes were awarded.”
Although his triumph was barely noticed in the Philippines, not even picked up by media, this didn’t affect him. He said, “The experience further pushed me to work harder on my craft because I realized that there are just so many talented young pianists around the world.”