ARSENIO “Nick” Lizaso, president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), is fulfilling a promise to bring art closer to the people.

Lizaso has agreed for the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) to perform at the Rose Garden at Burnham Park in November to open Christmas celebrations in the city.

Lizaso said it will be the first time the PPO to perform at the city’s most popular park with an expected crowd of thousands.

The PPO is the flagship orchestra of the country and is renowned for its talent worldwide acclaim.

“I would like citizens from all walks of life to be able to enjoy the PPO and I want to share it to the people of Baguio,” Lizaso said.

The upcoming Christmas in Baguio led by the Baguio Tourism Council (BTC) has brought the PPO to the city for everyone to experience to open the month-long celebration of “An Enchanting Baguio Christmas.”

Lizaso said the CCP has activities and programs which aim to make art more accessible for everyone citing the PPO has performed to patients of the Philippine General Hospital with areas in the country where the orchestra has serenaded crowds reaching up to 12,000.

“We want big audiences, where people are free to hear our music, that is what we want to happen,” Lizaso said.

Lizaso said performing to a crowd of people is what a cultural center should be: a cultural presence in the midst of ordinary farmers, workers, drivers, maids, retailers, tailors, seamstresses, schoolchildren, teeners, senior citizens and what have you. Art to me is not a passive word but an active word; not a fossilized heritage artifact or object, but a pulsating invisible energy meant to plumb the depths of the soul, to stir and uplift people.