For the Sept. 19 recital, Damodar will use a cello made by George Gerl, a winner in the Luthier Competition in Germany, given by Mr. Ernesto Echauz of Standard Insurance Co. Inc. Mariel Ilusorio will be playing on a newly restored 1904 Steinway New York grand piano considered rare in the Steinway & Sons catalog.
The first week of the humid and infernal month of May yielded outstanding performances and great soloists involving two orchestral ensembles and an all-Bach cello recital.
Cellist Damodar das Castillo has a tough act to follow when he interprets the Dvorak cello concerto May 4 with the Manila Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Finnish conductor Sasha Makila.
Damodar Das Castillo, 13, made music history when he won his fifth first prize in international music competition recently.
The 12-year old Filipino cello prodigy Damodar das Castillo is also locked down in Salzburg, Austria where he is a scholar in Mozarteum University for almost three years now.
Eleven-year old Damodar Das Castillo provided a glaring visual contrast with the members of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) in a recent well-received youth concert at the Cultural Center of the Philippines afternoon of July 31.
The coincidence is uncanny. In the early 70s, piano prodigy Cecile Licad entered Curtis Institute in Philadelphia at age 11. In 2017, cello prodigy Damodar Das Castillo passed the audition at Mozarteum in Vienna at age ten.
The recently concluded 2018 Menuhin Competition in Geneva, Switzerland yielded two brilliant prizewinners ages 10 and 11 -- Christian Li and Chloe Chua -- in the junior competition and with an 18-year old Armenian -- Diana Adamyan -- getting the top prize in the senior division.
