Ask any foreign national what distinguishes Filipinos from other people, and chances are he/she will say it’s our penchant for music. Fondness for music is our archetypal image as a people in the eyes of other nationals.
Filipino music bands, solo singers, and music instrument artists are mainstay performers in hotels, restaurants, and drinking bars in Asian countries, the Middle East, and even Europe. Filipino singing talents are employed in musical plays abroad. Cruise liners all over the world prefer our musicians.
We only need to walk around our neighborhood to validate what strangers say is our defining flair. The melody (or noise) of someone singing the karaoke is an everyday occurrence. In family or community celebrations, someone regularly shows off his or her singing ability (or lack of it). While other countries are passionate about sports like soccer, basketball, and cricket as palliative balms to alleviate life’s dreariness, we are hooked on the karaoke player as our coping mechanism against life’s hardships.
My wife and I have been taking voice lessons during this pandemic period. For my wife, it feeds her happy genes after a hard day’s work. For me, it’s mainly to strengthen my lungs after a very serious bout of COVID-19 hospitalization last year. Because of this accidental dalliance in music, we’ve pleasantly discovered very talented singers and musicians, and we’ve come to know their challenges.
There’s Bryan Sapigao, a child prodigy in piano and who finished his education at the Philippine High School for the Arts and the University of the Philippines College of Music. Sapigao is an outstanding piano instructor, and he performs in special events.
There’s Sean Nolasco, an outstanding music theater graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, who had a budding career as a theater artist in musical plays before the pandemic. Because the pandemic closed down the music scene, Nolasco is doing online mentorship for voice lessons, and he’s a brilliant mentor for anyone who aspires to sing outside of the bathroom. And there’s Joel Daquioag Jr., another excellent pianist and tenor singer, who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from St. Paul University in Manila. Daquioag is an exceptional piano instructor and voice coach, and he dabbles in band gigs as well.
Music artists enrich our unique trait as a people. They enliven our culture in many splendid ways. They immensely increase our public or societal wealth beyond the metrics of money. But for all they do, our singers and music artists are disproportionately compensated compared to other professionals who toil for sheer private gain.
If we are to hone and elevate our unique gift in music as a people, we must not entirely rely on artists being merely incidentally compensated in commercial settings. Instead, our government must step up and assume a bigger role in supporting them, partnering with them, and recognizing their role as indispensable pillars of our communities.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government is spot on in issuing a directive requiring local government units (LGUs) to create Local Culture and Arts Councils that will develop programs to promote culture and the arts. Our LGUs must be cured from their addiction of spending millions in hiring super expensive Manila-based singers and performers and in holding inane beauty contests during their fiestas. Instead, our LGUS should use their arts and culture budget to support local singing talents to undergo voice tutorials, to fund mentorship for residents who show talent in playing musical instruments, and to organize music theater programs. Every LGU should support the formation of bands, orchestras, choirs, and theater groups. The LGUs can then hire these local talents to do weekend performances in the town plaza and barangay community centers. Suppose a third-class municipality only devotes 2 percent of its P200 million annual budget to these art projects. In that case, the P4 million fund will go a long way in making life happier and more meaningful in every community.
We get so fixated on the race for worldly possessions, but this will never quench our thirst for what quintessentially makes us a people. Music is the soul of the Filipino.
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