Monday, July 14, 2008 Costanilla: Valrock’s promise to street kids By Sam Costanilla Spotlight
WE should never fail to commend those individuals who go out of their way to walk the extra mile in uplifting the plight of street children in our midst. One such individual is composer-singer Percival Dinopol, a.k.a. Valrock of Southwings band.
He e-mailed to inform us that his band has just released its new album online and that he is donating a portion of the album sales to the JCI Mandaue Fund for Streetchildren. Valrock is an active Jaycee himself.
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VALROCK wrote that the band’s Promiseland album contains 11 original soundtracks including two Cebuano/Visayan songs titled Komosta, Inday and Panaad while the nine others, in English, depict social issues confronting the nation today. As band leader and prime songwriter, Valrock is offering to the JCI Mandaue Fund for Streetchildren P10 for every album download or P3 for each track download. To download, simply go to: www.amazon.com search for mp3 download southwings. For those residing in the US, it’s www.lala.com search for southwings mp3. If I’m not mistaken, I think Valrock is the only local musician that has come up with this idea — allocating part of his album proceeds for the benefit of street children. Cheers to him!
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THIS writer and the rest of those that went to SM City Cinema 2 the other Sunday evening had a great time watching Trio Amical’s concert titled Songs from the Heart. It was a very impressive show featuring mezzo-soprano Victoria Robertson, clarinetist Marian Liebowitz and pianist Lois Kim. They had some classical pieces as well as a number of Broadway hits that truly delighted the audience. The three women were able to prove that they can stage a truly impressive concert without really trying hard. Thanks to the Arts Council of Cebu Foundation, Inc, the US Embassy and SM City Cebu for bringing Trio Amical to town. What a fantastic musical treat it was!
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REY ROA, a Utah-based piano, voice, organ and choral artist, is in Cebu for a two-night concert next week. He will accompany the lovely soprano and violinist June Ong, last year’s Utah Fine Arts Competition state champion. As a Christian, Rey desires to show his love for God through his passion for music.
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LOCAL songwriters that want to participate in the 2009 Cebu Popular Music Festival have until July 31 to submit their entries, as many as possible, to the Cebu Arts Foundation, Inc. at the University of the Visayas alumni office.
Festival executive director Philogene Florita says there will be no extension of the deadline because the screening of all entries will be on Aug. 10.
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THE move of setting up a museum of Philippine political history in Cebu deserves the full support of all Cebuanos. Gov. Gwen Garcia and National Historical Institute chair Ambeth Ocampo recently signed a memorandum of agreement on this.
Both the provincial government and the institute are allocating one million pesos each for the replication of the museum here. It’s not yet too late to have this type of museum in Cebu. I’m sure local political historians would find the opening of this museum a very helpful and wonderful partner in their researches.
