Archive - Arts & Culture

By PABLO A. TARIMAN THERE will be poignant memories of Hiroshima when the Amici Trio from Japan performs Francisco Santiago’s Ave Maria at the Sta. Isabel College’s Sto Cristo del Tesoro Auditorium on Tuesday, August 27. Composed of violinist Kazuki Yamamoto, pianist Tomoyo Kobayashi and  Filipino baritone Joseleo Logdat, the members of the Amici Trio

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN WHEN you are young and nimble, you go for it like one of those challenges that help you size up the width and breadth of your musical talent. Celebrated pianist Cecile Licad joined her first competition at age 11 but only to test whether she has what it takes to

Text and photos by MARIO IGNACIO IV WITH citizens now turning to social media for information, the Marikina local government has taken to using Twitter and Facebook to post updates about the Marikina River’s water level, the main concern of residents during the rainy season. Marikina public information office (PIO) head Paul Edward P. Sison

By PABLO A. TARIMAN THE gift of being an artist comes with a price. When the Manila Symphony Orchestra  performs  at the UP Abelardo Hall in Diliman, Quezon City on Tuesday, August 20 ( 7 p.m.), concert-goers will be treated to a music honed by struggles and triumphs. Many of MSO members are  winners of

  By ELIZABETH LOLARGA Photos courtesy of Ayala Museum SPIDERY webs, nets, dots, petals–imagine these harmless images. But they’re out there, crowding one’s field of vision, encroaching on, about to engulf one’s self. These hallucinations continue to visit Yayoi Kusama, called “The Queen of the Polka Dots” in the avant-garde world. Rather than being crippled

  By NORMAN SISON “A soldier holds the key to my heart.” This is the message imprinted on a t-shirt that has become a fashion hit among military spouses and girlfriends. It is just one of the fast-selling designs of the Army Shirt label of gun enthusiast Nelson Dy, whose clothing company Bela Apparel supplies

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN Photos by EDNA VIDA STAGE and film actress  Shamaine Centenera Buencamino is the beleaguered, if, repentant mother of Julia Montes in “Walang Hanggan,” a role that she played with such realism she towered over everybody in the ensemble. Indeed, she has enough resources in her acting arsenal to make the

By PABLO A. TARIMAN THERE is no sign of  the music of Nicanor Abelardo  in this generation of singers rattling their epiglottis away in assorted amateur singing contests mounted by several TV networks. But perhaps ABS-CBN Philharmonic will make a difference by introducing Abelardo’s music in its educational programs. For the new generation of music

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA TO the military, cultural worker Artus Talastas was a terrorist. To his comrades, he was a hero. What cannot be disputed about Talastas, who was killed in an encounter between the military and suspected communist guerrillas last June, is his imperishable Igorot spirit. It lives in works that, in

By PABLO A. TARIMAN LIKE it or not, Giselle is the stuff of present-day teleserye with poignant  dancing scenes portraying pure love, cut short by misconstrued betrayal and then the final act showing  love and death in the graveyard. It is a mere coincidence that two of the country’s top stage and film actors are

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN Photo by Kiko Cabuena WEDNESDAY night at the CCP, violinist Diomedes Saraza, Jr. treated his recital audience to an evening of Bach and Beethoven and with a contemporary piece written by an American pianist thrown in. The first piece is a Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV1005.

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN THE most redeeming feature of the recently concluded Cine Malaya Independent Film Festival is that moviegoers are able to see realistic reflections of Philippine society as seen by independent filmmakers. These films are no doubt a much-needed respite from the so-called “kilig” films that make money for the mainstream film

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN CONDUCTOR Helen Quach, popularly known as “Asia’s Queen of the Baton” and “The Lady Tyrant of the Podium” passed away last Wednesday, July 31 in Canberra, Australia after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 73. For the record, her last engagements with the Manila Symphony Orchestra and the

By PABLO A. TARIMAN THE real-life stories of the country’s leading artists past and present are rich goldmine for cinema materials. It is a sad observation that mixing classical music and cinema – at least in the Philippines – is deemed not a good combination at the box office. In the mid-80s, the late filmmaker

By PABLO A. TARIMAN THERE is no way you can miss the architectural legacy of National Artist for Architecture Pablo Antonio anywhere in Metro Manila. The Ideal Theater which he designed in 1933 was where you saw “The Singing Nun” and “Dr. Zhivago” in the 60s. Most young men growing up in the 60s saw

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA LIPING Zheng is like a mandarin transported from ancient China. His passion for traditional painting and calligraphy matches his commitment to his work as lead urban development specialist and advisor for South Asia at the Asian Development Bank. He finds no contradictions in these pursuits. He’s just following a

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN FILMMAKER Gil Portes tackles a subject that is not likely to enjoy mainstream following. He had offered the script to mainstream producers but as the cliché goes, they wouldn’t touch the subject with a ten-foot pole. But true to himself, he firmly believed the story must be told whatever it

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN ONE wonders how actor-director Behn Cervantes feels about the sudden deluge of recognition coming his way. Last June, the University of the Philippines gave him a Life Achievement Award.  A few years earlier, he got another Aliw Awards life achievement citation. But as he was  wont to say earlier, “I