Archive - Arts & Culture

THERE'S more to life in Payatas than scavenging. This is shown by a group of women living beside the Quezon City dumpsite who have learned new skills that provided them a more dignified alternative source of income.

BARITONE Andrew Fernando has tackled another Russian role with flying colors in Shostakovich's lone operetta, “Moscow, Cherry Town,” mounted recently by the Long Beach Opera (LBO) in California.

YOUNG independent comics creators are struggling to help revive the local comics industry-- once an indelible part of Philippine culture -- by crafting something uniquely Filipino in the digital world.

ERWIN Fernandez's children's story entitled "Si Liwawa, say pusan agto gabay so ondangol" (Liwawa, the cat who refused to bark), is not just about animals' struggle to assert their own identity. It's  an allegory of the state of culture in his home province Pangasinan, where the vernacular language is under threat of extinction.

WHEN Edita Aguinaldo-Dacuycuy first held a dragon fruit, it was for a cure of her daughter Kate, who is afflicted with cerebral palsy. Never did she imagine that the scaly bright pink fruit that reminded some of a dragon would also bring her fortune and honor

A FILIPINO baritone based in Berlin is now considered one of the world’s most versatile interpreters of contemporary music in the German opera scene after appearing in an important segment of a contemporary opera by acclaimed composer Karlheinz Stockhausen last April 9 and 10 at the Cologne Opera in Germany.

ON May 16, the grand ballroom of the Dusit Thani Manila hotel will be filled with the delightful hits of the Hotdog band when the trailblazing Pinoy pop- rock group in the 1970s stages a one- night reunion concert.

PRIZEWINNING German cellist Alban Gerhardt has chosen to team up with celebrated Filipino pianist Cecile Licad in his latest CD "Casals Encores" under Hyperion label set to be launched in June.

EVEN if they are thousands of miles away, overseas members of Abra indigenous peoples (IPs) are actively involved in a virtual community that uses the ancient, indigenous practice of dap-ay and the social networking site Facebook to help their fellow Maengs in this northern province.

TO celebrate the National Pet Month this May, animal lovers can give their pets a “gift of love” that can ensure their greater chance of survival, that is, by having them spayed or neutered.

WITH th the onslaught of disasters around the world, many have committed to saving the environment in their own creative way. As the country celebrates Earth Day, VERA Files reports on four environment advocacies that form part of this year’s theme, “A Billion Acts of Green.”
Click on image for the video.

CELEBRATED Filipino pianist Cecile Licad makes history in Russian soil when she becomes the first Filipino soloist to perform with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra on April 15 at the highly revered Tchaikovsky Hall at Triumfalnay Square in Moscow.