11:41PM
It's the last night before the choir I belong to, the Ateneo de Manila College Glee Club, will be performing at the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing. We just arrived at our hotel, from a well-received concert in a high school located in Ptuj.
I am finding it difficult to settle down and call it a night for now. Opening my email, Twitter and Facebook, I am overwhelmed (to say the least) by all the support, love and prayers I and the ACGC have been flooded with for the big day tomorrow. All our parents, siblings, school mates, student leaders, administrators, friends both in and out of the choral world, plus over 25 generations of Glee Club alumni have banded together to shower us with support and well wishes. It is astounding; most humbling. It is grace.
I find myself reflecting upon everything that has led me up to this point.
My path as a chorister started when I was in 3rd Grade when I had joined the Ateneo Boys' Choir. I entered a young boy soprano, armed with nothing but a knack for music and singing. I distinctly remember hearing our conductress back then (Mrs. Joy Gonzales) mention the word "competition" and that our batch may have been ready for it. She was talking about joining NAMCYA. Being so young, the thought of it didn't really get to me. I just wanted to sing. The plan did not push through.
Later on, I decided to join the Ateneo High School Glee Club, as a continuation of my love for choral singing instilled in me by the Boys' Choir. Our conductor back then was Sir Chris Ong. I almost didn't make it past the auditions, I think. I was given a call-back, when the rest of my friends who auditioned were accepted outright. Fortunately, I got in, and the most amazing journey of my life would thus begin. I remember the very first piece we were made to study: Gamelan. It was a capella, in 4-part harmony. I was assigned Tenor 2. The piece was alien to me: it had no melody; only dings and dongs being sung in different ways, reminiscent of bells, with repeating patterns of tones. It didn't make sense to me at all back then, but I recall feeling amazed at how the voices could meld with one another, magically.
After staying a while, I found out we would be competing. An inter-high school national choral competition, we were told. Voices in Harmony. We prepared Pamulinawen and Hindi Magbabago for our repertoire. In rehearsing such "sophisticated" choral settings, I was made aware of how limited my previous singing experience actually was. My musical skills were honed slowly and I could tell the huge difference between a semi-tone interval from then on. Surprisingly, it didn't come easy. It took a gruelling process of awakening for me to accept that I did not know everything about choral singing; that what I did know back then was merely the tip of the colossal iceberg I would eventually discover deeper. It wasn't easy, but I liked it. Each rehearsal felt like me being home, with family, just doing what we loved. I became inseparable from this experience of musical and personal harmony. It became my world. Thank you, Sir Chris, for immersing me into it. I will be forever grateful.
From then on, I aspired to join the Ateneo College Glee Club since my sophomore year in the high school. The European Grand Prix was nothing but a dream for me back though, when I was a member of the Ateneo High School Glee Club, with simple choral aspirations. After hearing stories about the "golden era" of the ACGC under Dr. Navarro, I searched for YouTube videos of them and I chanced upon their sound check video from EGP 2001 in Debrecen, Hungary. Right smack in the middle was Sir Chris. How I looked up to him then, him having had the opportunity to be with THE tour cast that made ACGC history. With a sigh, I knew this was a far fetched fantasy. EGP is and was a once-in-a-lifetime thing - and that, for Ateneo, was already claimed by the 2001 batch. YouTube would be my only means to have a glimpse or experience at it. Or so I thought.
Years later, at this very point in time, with EGP 2012 hovering quite literally around the corner, I look back at these fond memories of my humble musical journey - the auditions, the rehearsals, the concerts, the competitions - which led me to be here, with the Ateneo College Glee Club, the group I had only but hoped and dreamed to join back in the day. I come to appreciate how things have fallen to precisely into place, and how destinies have come so magically aligned. In the Boys' Choir, JB and Dom were among my batchmates. In the High School Glee Club, I had the chance to sing with KP, and through this group I met John Cas and Leo. Now, astonishingly, we are all in the same tour cast, brimming with excitement at what well could be the most defining moment of our lives. 39 paths have merged to have us all at this precise place, time and gracious opportunity. Who would have thought?
The divine blue print for this competition was not merely crafted over the past two years of tour preparations. Our entire lives as individuals have unfolded in so precise a manner that each experience - learning, success, failure, heart-break, love, joy, sorrow, gratitude and all else - that we've been through throughout our entire lives have molded and readied us perfectly for this one fateful moment together.
I will be singing of these experiences. Each rise and fall in the music will speak of how I have been shaped as a chorister, as a student, as a son, as a friend, as a Filipino. Each dissonance and resolution will reveal exactly what tribulations we've had to overcome by ourselves and as a group to get to this point - this point of pure grace, fellowship and fulfillment. I will be singing with nothing but sincerity, humility, selflessness and gratitude.
As Ma'am Malou has put it so simply yet profoundly at the same time:
"We are set."
Here's to the European Grand Prix 2012.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
April 22, 2012
12:38AM
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Maribor, Slovenia
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