Monday, November 19, 2007 Costanilla: Reaping gold in Jakarta By Sam Costanilla spotlight
IT was a musically enriching experience that I had in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta last week. For seven days, I was with the members of the Cebu Chamber Singers (CCS), led by Dr. Manuel Emerson Donaldo and the Mandaue City School for the Arts Children’s Choir. Both groups took part in the historic First Asian Choir Games organized by the Interkultur Foundation of Germany and supported by the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Music genius maestro Dennis Gregory Sugarol is the trainer and conductor of both choirs.
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WE were billeted at the Mega Matra Hotel whose staff and employees tried to serve us well despite the communication difficulty. Our group was lucky to have Dr. Donaldo interpreter—his mastery of the Indonesian language was a very big help to us whose English the Indonesians couldn’t understand. Unfortunately, Jed, one of our male singers, was a victim of cell phone snatching just outside our hotel.
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THE First Asian Choir Games, which featured 21 different categories, was held at the JI Expo, a very large venue that has an exhibition hall and a convention center. The main aim of the contest is to foster global peace and understanding through the power of choir singing. The CCS garnered two diplomas (both in the gold level) in the mixed choirs, and gospel and spiritual categories. The kids from Mandaue City earned three golds for the children’s choir, songs of the religions and folklore categories. The ever charming Irene Alcantara was the pianist for both groups. Both choirs deserve a loud applause from all Cebuanos for doing well in a major choral singing competition, which was actually their first international exposure. If plans push through, both choirs will go to Europe and the US for a series of goodwill concerts.
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MY very good friend, the lovely lady lawyer GingGing Navarro, e-mailed that she and her business partner have just formed a greeting card company called Venus Links. She wrote that their first product is a Christmas card that allows its buyers to “pay their blessings forward.” The card was designed by an orphan from the SOS Children’s Village in Talamban. So when you buy this card, part of the proceeds go to the center and the recipient of your card will enjoy a one-year accident insurance of P50,000. And to think that each card is only P50. Great deal, right?
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THIS card is an ideal gift for our staff, friends, employees, clients and others. By buying it, we actually help the SOS Village, a charity home for abandoned and abused orphans—not to mention the year-long accident insurance for the recipient of your Christmas card. If you’re thinking of buying this card, call or text me now so that I can help facilitate your purchase. It is, after all, for a noble cause.
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THIS inactive radio commentator attended the recent meeting of a drama talents’ club after he told some friends earlier that their group doesn’t deserve any attention.
