It has been 65 years since the death of President Ramon Magsaysay in a C-47 plane crash on March 17, 1957 at Mt. Manunggal. To commemorate the event, the Classic Youth Orchestra (CYO) under Prof. Reynaldo Abellana, held a concert at the Temple of Leah with Dr. Ingrid Sala Santamaria as guest soloist.
With musical director Abellana conducting the CYO, the concert began with an invocation, “Amazing Grace,” rendered by Dr. Am Evange Mendoza, followed by the Philippine National Anthem. A short welcome talk was given by Pres. Ramon Magsaysay’s grandson, Paco.
The concert proper began with two numbers from the CYO: Johannes Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and Antonio Vivaldi’s “Concerto for 2 violins, 1st movement” with soloists Cecile Angela Abellana and Keifer James Ababon for violin 1, and Elson Aiken Mariano and Alec Gillian Pelayo, for violin 2. Both numbers showed how far the members of CYO have developed in their musicality and capability to play as one under the baton of their musical director, Abellana, a TOYM (The Outstanding Young Men award in the Philippines) awardee.
The main event of the evening was Dr. Santamaria playing, with the CYO, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No 2.” Dr. Santamaria masterfully rendered homage to the composer’s work, her fingers moving like magic over the piano keys to evoke the range of emotions behind the melody in the composer’s mind; sometimes grandly uplifting, soaring, and at times calming, gently caressing.
A standing ovation followed Dr. Santamaria’s performance and, as she was about to give a talk, her brother Cheling came to her and asked her to play Schumann/Liszt’s “Dedication,” and effortlessly she played as requested.
Maestro Abellana is a product of the 10-year Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra program of the Salvador and Pilar Sala Foundation, for which Dr. Santamaria stopped concertizing for a decade.
She now sees how far the program has gone to keep classic music alive in Cebu so she is always ready to play in this city. In fact, before the pandemic lockdown, her last concert was in Cebu also with the CYO, and the Magsaysay commemorative concert is her first concert (and first plane flight out of Manila) since the lockdown.
To cap the evening’s event, the CYO with CYO parents doing the vocals, played a rousing “Mambo Magsaysay” for a president who was loved by the masses. It was a lovely night of music and memories made possible with the help of sponsors Temple of Leah, Lyric Philippines, Adventist International Symphony Orchestra, Carmen’s Best, Adventist Academy Cebu, Sanchez Designs and Asian Learning Center.