Archive - Arts & Culture

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.

Bohol’s young people are giving hope that the province’s cherished tradition of Daygon would not suffer extinction and continue to be enjoyed by future generations

On extended run until Jan. 8, 2025 at the basement of the centrally located Baguio Convention Center, “Naked City: Futures from the Crossroad,” the visual arts exhibition that’s part of the recent Ibagiw Creative Festival, indeed strips from the city all those romantic, nostalgic notions and reinstates the significance of the once shunted indigenous peoples and culture.

Filmmaker Carlitos Siguion-Reyna who just arrived in New York managed his jetlag and went straight to Carnegie Hall. “Saw a wonderful recital of Cecile Licad. The pianist again did the music world, the Philippines, and herself much honor through her deeply personal readings of a rich, diverse, and interesting program generously supplemented by two encores. Hoping for more concerts of her again soon in Manila.”

The name Kevin Eric Raymundo doesn’t trigger automatic recognition in the way the alias Tarantadong Kalbo does. The alias is undeniably catchy, and intriguing, especially because tarantado is hardly a mainstay of polite conversation. It makes one wonder if the man, Tarantadong Kalbo, is simply a jerk (albeit a creative one) or a rebel with a cause (he’s the latter). The identification is shored up by his kalbo (bald) style that he wears with aplomb.

Celebrating our Christmas tradition, the Philippine Postal Corporation has released special stamps titled Simbang Gabi sa Ilog Pasig. The Philippines is one of the only few countries in the world that practice the nine-day dawn masses before Christmas.

The exhibit of rare and original paintings of Filipino masters Juan Luna, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Fernando Amorsolo and Juan Arellano opened to the Iloilo public Monday, Nov. 25 at the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) Performance Hall.

In traditional Asia, the floor of a dwelling is a multipurpose space for social gatherings, eating, and sleeping, a cultural practice that still exists.

Friday night (Nov. 22) at the Samsung Theater in Circuit Makati, violinist Diomedes Saraza, Jr. wore many hats in the ecstatically received Music Movies Magic concert of the Philippine Philharmonic under Gerard Salonga.

Manila is visited by a succession of Curtis-educated artists.

In Richard Buxani’s most recent solo exhibit, Magic in Metal: The Art of Richard Buxani, at the UST Museum, Manila, he presented selected works from 2009 to 2024, showing his versatility in metal sculptures.

Music lovers had a rare musical treat of Filipino zarzuelas and opera by the UP Symphony Orchestra Nov. 8 at the state university theater in Diliman. The backstage suspense was that soprano Angeli Benipayo took the place of a vocally indisposed Stefanie Quintin just three days before the concert.

Before he leaves for Europe, Arthur Espiritu is slated to appear in a special concert at the Manila Pianos on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in between singing Rodolfo in La Boheme at Cologne Opera in Germany until the new year.

Amidst Latin America’s inequality and dictatorships in the 1960s and beyond, Gustavo Gutiérrez‘s Liberation Theology argued that the church had a duty to push for basic political and structural changes that would end poverty.

In Jose Tence Ruiz’s latest solo exhibition titled The Carbon Footprint of the Stoic Heroic, nine new works are on display —an artist’s searing response in a time of the intentional eradication of Palestine and its people; the crisis of migration; the repressive power of the Church and the State; and the complicity of the powers-that-be everywhere, all at once. The Carbon Footprint exhibit runs until Nov. 16 at Silverlens Galleries, Makati.

Savage Mind, a cultural landmark in Naga City, survived the beatings of typhoon Enteng last September but not the ferocity of storm Kristine.

The music played by Sunlag is inspired by nature, Asian Traditional Music and the European Avant Garde in its textures, colors and compositional processes.

The show was a virtual Theater of Silence reminiscent of Andrea Bocelli’s concert venue called Teatro del Silenzio in the Tuscan hills of Italy.

Many ethnolinguistic groups in the country use three sources of colorants: yellow ginger or turmeric for yellow dyes, morinda or noni tree for red dyes, and indigo for blue-black dyes.

It is a week of music and memories as friends, musicians and Iloilo city officials including civic organizations pay tribute to violinist and music missionary Gilopez Kabayao in the last days of viewing at the Gegato-Abecia Memorial Homes at Tanza, Iloilo City.

Fil-American singing actor Yna Tresvalles is only 23 but she is playing the role of Anne Boleyn who was married to King Henry VIII at age 31 on January 25, 1533. She was later beheaded for high treason on May 19, 1536.

Baguio City’s music lovers savored rare vocal treats during the weekend with two back-to-back concerts featuring the magic of cinema through their music and a balanced program of opera and Neapolitan favorites.

Can you ever imagine living and cooking without electricity or running water? For a very long time, Filipinos cooked with firewood and charcoal in their smoky kitchen.

After a successful season opening concert of the Philippine Philharmonic under Maestro Grzegorz Nowak, the national orchestra goes breezy and light in an evening of film music with Gerard Salonga on November 22, 2024, 7:30 p.m. at the Samsung Theater for Performing Arts.