Music to fill Padcal mine

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- A group of Filipino musicians is considering holding a music boot camp for Philex elementary and high school students this summer.

If plans push through, it is the first time a professional music boot camp will be held in the region.

Patricia Hizon, administrator and communications director of PhilPop MusicFest Foundation Inc., together with PhilPop executive director Ryan Cayabyab, and the finalists of the 2012 Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPOP), toured the Padcal mine facilities and community in December to look into possible sites for the music camp.

Students from Philex Mines Elementary School (PMES) and Philex St. Louis High School feted them with Igorot prayers and dances.

The students held regular music lessons and summer classes on music and the arts for some time.

“We are confident that your community will produce not just gold and copper, but also wonderful talents this country will be proud of,” Hizon said.

The PhilPOP finalists last month serenaded the Padcal students and the whole community with popular songs, to which the audience of about 500 sang along.

“Mr. Cayabyab and the PhilPOP finalists all felt great performing for the community,” Hizon added.

Cayabyab described OPM as “a cultural treasure, the identity of our people and our country. We seek to enrich OPM and educate this and future generations on its uniqueness and importance. We seek to resound and preserve the vanishing, perhaps forgotten, musical gems from the rural areas.”

“We’d all like to go back really and have the songwriting workshop there with Mr. C,” Hizon said.