TWO THOMASIANS clinched the second place in the piano and guitar categories of this year’s National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA), held on Nov. 22 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
UST Professor Renato Lucas, NAMCYA secretary general, said NAMCYA is a platform for nation-building.
“[Music] must be used as a tool for nation-building, and I do hope our young artists realize that. It’s our duty to build upon our cultural nationalism, if you will,” he said.
Lucas also raised concerns over the steady decrease in the number of participants in the last couple of years.
“It is a troubling issue, though it was not unforeseen. We work in small circles… Now more than ever do we need the spirit of togetherness amongst the country’s music schools,” he added.
Lucas teaches at the Conservatory of Music and the Faculty of Arts and Letters.
Pianist Michael Valenciano, a junior at the Conservatory of Music, placed second with his “Emperor Concerto” by Beethoven.
Harel Ang claimed the first place while Philippine High School for the Arts student Andrea Verzosa bagged the third place.
Music alumnus Leandro Ong won second place in the guitar open-category for his enchanting rendition of Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s “Concerto Elegiaco” while Aaron Biag from Centro Escolar University placed third.
Founded in 1973 by the CCP, the Department of Education and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, NAMCYA has become an avenue to discover young artists in different fields of music and performance.
