A UST Conservatory of Music faculty member won Best Music Direction and Orchestra Performance at the BroadwayWorld Philippines Awards 2024, which announced the winners on social media on Jan. 17.
Asst. Prof. Daniel Bartolome was recognized for his direction of the musical, “Once on This Island,” organized and staged by performing arts group 9 Works Theatrical.
This was Bartolome’s second Best Musical Direction plum. He won the award in 2016 for “American Idiot.”
“Once on This Island” revolves around the journey of a peasant girl named Ti Moune, who falls in love with an aristocrat. It also touches upon Ti Moune’s encounters with the gods on the island.
Apart from directing the one-act stage musical, Bartolome also played percussion during its runs.
“What makes the musical really interesting is the instrumentation of the musical because it involves a lot of percussion instruments,” said Bartolome, who completed his classical percussion degree from the UST Conservatory in 2007.
“Like any other musical that I do, this one is very challenging. Because I was conducting and playing percussion at the same time. So my focus was, I’d say, double for this musical,” he told the Varsitarian.
“Once on This Island” ran from Sept. 6 to 29 at RCBC Plaza in Makati.
The musical was inspired by the 1985 novel “My Love, My Love,” a Caribbean-set retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid.”
The BroadwayWorld Philippines Awards recognizes outstanding theater productions in the country.
