Antonino R.

Buenaventura
National Artist
for Music (1988)
(May 4, 1904 –
January 25, 1996)
Antonino R. Buenaventura
 Antonino R. Buenaventura vigorously pursued a musical
career that spanned seven decades of unwavering
commitment to advancing the frontiers of Philippine music.
In 1935, Buenaventura joined Francisca Reyes-Aquino to
conduct research on folksongs and dances that led to its
popularization. Buenaventura composed songs, compositions,
for solo instruments as well as symphonic and orchestral
works based on the folksongs of various Philippine ethnic
groups. He was also a conductor and restored the Philippine
Army Band to its former prestige as one of the finest military
bands in the world making it “the only band that can sound
like a symphony orchestra”.
Antonino R. Buenaventura
 This once sickly boy who played the clarinet
proficiently has written several marches such as the
“Triumphal March,” “Echoes of the Past,” “History
Fantasy,” Second Symphony in E-flat, “Echoes
from the Philippines,” “Ode to Freedom.” His
orchestral music compositions include Concert
Overture, Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, Philippines
Triumphant, Mindanao Sketches, Symphony in C
Major, among others.
Antonino R. Buenaventura

Ako’y Nangangarap
Jose M. Maceda
 Jose Maceda, composer, musicologist, teacher and
performer, explored the musicality of the Filipino deeply.
Maceda embarked on a life-long dedication to the
understanding and popularization of Filipino traditional
music. Maceda’s researches and fieldwork have resulted in
the collection of an immense number of recorded music
taken from the remotest mountain villages and farthest
island communities. He wrote papers that enlightened
scholars, both Filipino and foreign, about the nature of
Philippine traditional and ethnic music. Maceda’s
experimentation also freed Filipino musical expression from
a strictly Eurocentric mold.
Jose M. Maceda
 Usually performed as a communal ritual, his
compositions like Ugma-
ugma(1963), Pagsamba (1968), and Udlot-
udlot(1975), are monuments to his unflagging
commitment to Philippine music. Other major works
include Agungan, Kubing, Pagsamba, Ugnayan,
Ading, Aroding, Siasid, Suling-suling.
Jose M. Maceda
 Udlot-Udlot (1975)
Played in San Francisco, USA
Lucrecia R.
Kasilag
National Artist
for Music (1989)
(August 31, 1918 –
August 16, 2008)
Lucrecia R. Kasilag
 Lucrecia R. Kasilag, as educator, composer, performing artist,
administrator and cultural entrepreneur of national and international
caliber, had involved herself wholly in sharpening the Filipino audience’s
appreciation of music. Kasilag’s pioneering task to discover the Filipino
roots through ethnic music and fusing it with Western influences has led
many Filipino composers to experiment with such an approach. She dared
to incorporate indigenous Filipino instruments in orchestral productions,
such as the prize-winning “Toccata for Percussions and
Winds, Divertissement and Concertante,” and the scores of
the Filiasiana, Misang Pilipino and De Profundis. “Tita King”, as she
was fondly called, worked closely as music director with colleagues
Lucresia Reyes-Urtula, Isabel Santos, Jose Lardizabal and Dr. Leticia P. de
Guzman and made Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company one of the
premier artistic and cultural groups in the country.
Lucrecia R. Kasilag
 Her orchestral music include Love Songs, Legend of
the Sarimanok, Ang Pamana, Philippine
Scenes, Her Son, Jose, Sisa and chamber music
like Awit ng mga Awit Psalms, Fantaisie on a 4-
Note Theme, and East Meets Jazz Ethnika.
Lucrecia R. Kasilag
 Kasilag's Tocatta for percussion
and Winds
Ernani J.
Cuenco
National
Artist for
Music (1999)
(May 10, 1936 –
June 11, 1988)
Ernani J. Cuenco
 Ernani J. Cuenco is a seasoned musician born in May 10, 1936
in Malolos, Bulacan. A composer, film scorer, musical director
and music teacher, he wrote an outstanding and memorable
body of works that resonate with the Filipino sense of
musicality and which embody an ingenious voice that raises
the aesthetic dimensions of contemporary Filipino music.
Cuenco played with the Filipino Youth Symphony Orchestra
and the Manila Symphony Orchestra from 1960 to 1968, and
the Manila Chamber Soloists from 1966 to 1970. He completed
a music degree in piano and cello from the University of Santo
Tomas where he also taught for decades until his death in
1988.
Ernani J. Cuenco
His songs and ballads include “Nahan, Kahit
na Magtiis,” and “Diligin Mo ng Hamog ang
Uhaw na Lupa,” “Pilipinas,” “Inang Bayan,”
“Isang Dalangin,” “Kalesa,” “Bato sa
Buhangin” and “Gaano Kita Kamahal.” The
latter song shows how Cuenco has enriched the
Filipino love ballad by adding the elements of
kundiman to it.
Ernani J. Cuenco
KALESA
Lucio San
Pedro
National Artist
for Music (1991)
(February 11, 1913
– March 31, 2002)
Lucio San Pedro
 Lucio San Pedro is a master composer, conductor, and teacher
whose music evokes the folk elements of the Filipino heritage.
Cousin to “Botong” Francisco, San Pedro has produced a wide-
ranging body of works that includes band music, concertos for
violin and orchestra, choral works, cantatas, chamber music,
music for violin and piano, and songs for solo voice. He was the
conductor of the much acclaimed Peng Kong Grand Mason
Concert Band, the San Pedro Band of Angono, his father’s former
band, and the Banda Angono Numero Uno. His civic commitment
and work with town bands have significantly contributed to the
development of a civic culture among Filipino communities and
opened a creative outlet for young Filipinos.
Lucio San Pedro
 His orchestral music include The Devil’s
Bridge, Malakas at Maganda Overture,Prelude
and Fugue in D minor, Hope and Ambition;
choral music Easter Cantata, Sa Mahal Kong
Bayan, Rizal’s Valedictory Poem; vocal
music Lulay,Sa Ugoy ng Duyan, In the Silence of
the Night; and band music Dance of the
Fairies, Triumphal March, Lahing
Kayumanggi, Angononian March among others.
Lucio San Pedro
 Sa Mahal Kong Bayan
Antonio J.
Molina
National Artist for
Music (1973)
(December 26, 1894
– January 29, 1980)
Antonio J. Molina
 Antonio J. Molina, versatile musician, composer, music educator
was the last of the musical triumvirate, two of whom were Nicanor
Abelardo and Francisco Santiago, who elevated music beyond the
realm of folk music. At an early age, he took to playing the
violoncello and played it so well it did not take long before he was
playing as orchestra soloist for the Manila Grand Opera House.
Molina is credited for introducing such innovations as the whole
tone scale, pentatonic scale, exuberance of dominant ninths and
eleventh cords, and linear counterpoints. As a member of the
faculty of the UP Conservatory, he had taught many of the
country’s leading musical personalities and educators like Lucresia
Kasilag and Felipe de Leon.
Antonio J. Molina
 Molina’s most familiar composition is Hatinggabi, a
serenade for solo violin and piano accompaniment.
Other works are (orchestral music) Misa Antoniana
Grand Festival Mass, Ang Batingaw, Kundiman-
Kundangan; (chamber music) Hating Gabi, String
Quartet, Kung sa Iyong Gunita, Pandangguhan;
(vocal music) Amihan, Awit ni Maria
Clara, Larawan Nitong Pilipinas, among others.
Antonio J. Molina

 Awit ni Maria Clara

( From Noli Me Tangere)
Francisco
Feliciano
National
Artist for
Music
(2014)
Francisco Feliciano
 Francisco Feliciano’s corpus of creative work attests to the
exceptional talent of the Filipino as an artist. His lifetime
conscientiousness in bringing out the “Asianness” in his music,
whether as a composer, conductor, or educator, contributed to
bringing the awareness of people all over the world to view the
Asian culture as a rich source of inspiration and a celebration of
our ethnicity, particularly the Philippines. He brought out the
unique sounds of our indigenous music in compositions that
have high technical demands equal to the compositions of
masters in the western world. By his numerous creative outputs,
he has elevated the Filipino artistry into one that is highly
esteemed by the people all over the world.
Francisco Feliciano
 Many of his choral compositions have been performed by the best
choirs in the country, such as the world renowned Philippines
Madrigal Singers, UST Singers and the Novo Concertante Manila,
and have won for them numerous awards in international choral
competitions. The technical requirement of his choral pieces are
almost at the tip of the scale that many who listen to their
rendition are awed, especially because he incorporates the many
subtleties of rhythmic vitality and intricate interweaving of lines
inspired from the songs of our indigenous tribes. He not only
borrows these musical lines, albeit he quotes them and transforms
them into completely energetic fusions of sound and culture that
does nothing less than celebrate our various ethnicities.
Francisco Feliciano
 His operas and orchestral works also showcase the masterful
treatment of a musical language that is unique and carries
with it a contemporary style that allows for the use of modal
scales, Feliciano’s preferred tonality. The influence of
bringing out the indigenous culture, particularly in sound, is
strongly evident in La Loba Negra, Ashen Wings and Yerma.
In his modest hymns, Feliciano was able to bring out the
Filipino mysticism in the simple harmonies that is able to
captivate and charm his audiences. It is his matchless genius
in choosing to state his ideas in their simplest state but
producing a haunting and long lasting impact on the
listening soul that makes his music extraordinarily sublime.
Francisco Feliciano
Major Works: Ashen Wings (1995),
Sikhay sa Kabila ng Paalam (1993),
La Loba Negra (1983), Yerma (1982),
Pamugun (1995), Pokpok Alimako
(1981)
Francisco Feliciano
Pokpok Alimako
(1981)
Performed by UST Choral
Singers
Levi
Celerio
National Artist
for Literature /
Music (1997)
(April 30, 1910 –
April 2, 2002)
Levi Celerio
Levi Celerio is a prolific lyricist and
composer for decades. He effortlessly
translated/wrote anew the lyrics to
traditional melodies: “O Maliwanag Na
Buwan” (Iloko), “Ako ay May Singsing”
(Pampango), “Alibangbang” (Visaya)
among others.
Levi Celerio
Born in Tondo, Celerio received his
scholarship at the Academy of Music in
Manila that made it possible for him to join
the Manila Symphony Orchestra, becoming
its youngest member. He made it to the
Guinness Book of World Records as the
only person able to make music using just a
leaf.
Levi Celerio
A great number of his songs have been written
for the local movies, which earned for him the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Film
Academy of the Philippines. Levi Celerio, more
importantly, has enriched the Philippine music
for no less than two generations with a treasury
of more than 4,000 songs in an idiom that has
proven to appeal to all social classes.
Levi
Celerio
Ramon P.
Santos
National
Artist for
Music (2014)
Ramon P. Santos
Ramon Pagayon Santos, composer, conductor
and musicologist, is currently the country’s
foremost exponent of contemporary Filipino
music. A prime figure in the second generation
of Filipino composers in the modern idiom,
Santos has contributed greatly to the quest for
new directions in music, taking as basis non-
Western traditions in the Philippines and
Southeast Asia.
Ramon P. Santos
 His return to the Philippines marked a new path in his style.
After immersing himself in indigenous Philippine and Asian
(Javanese music and dance, Chinese nan kuan music), he
became more interested in open-ended structures of time and
space, function as a compositional concept, environmental
works, non-conventional instruments, the dialectics of control
and non-control, and the incorporation of natural forces in the
execution of sound-creating tasks. All these would lead to the
forging of a new alternative musical language founded on a
profound understanding and a thriving and sensitive awareness
of Asian music aesthetics and culture.
Ramon P. Santos
 Simultaneous with this was a reverting back to more
orthodox performance modes: chamber works and
multimedia works for dance and
theatre. Panaghoy (1984), for reader, voices, gongs
and bass drum, on the poetry of Benigno Aquino, Jr.
was a powerful musical discourse on the fallen
leader’s assassination in 1983, which subsequently
brought on the victorious People Power uprising in
1986.
Ramon P. Santos
 An active musicologist, Santos’ interest in traditional music
cultures was heretofore realized in 1976 by embarking on
fieldwork to collect and document music from folk religious
groups in Quezon. He has also done research and fieldwork
among the Ibaloi of Northern Luzon. His
ethnomusicological orientation has but richly enhanced his
compositional outlook. Embedded in the works of this
period are the people-specific concepts central to the
ethnomusicological discipline, the translation of indigenous
musical systems into modern musical discourse, and the
marriage of Western and non-Western sound.
Ramon P. Santos
 An intense and avid pedagogue, Santos, as Chair of
the Department of Composition and Theory (and
formerly, as Dean) of the College of Music, UP, has
remained instrumental in espousing a modern
Philippine music rooted in old Asian practices and
life concepts. With generation upon generation of
students and teachers that have come under his wing,
he continues to shape a legacy of modernity anchored
on the values of traditional Asian music.
Ramon P. Santos
Pal'ok by Ramon Pagayon
Santos
Jovita
Fuentes
National Artist
for Music (1976)
(February 15, 1895
– August 7, 1978)
Jovita Fuentes
 Long before Lea Salonga’s break into Broadway, there was already Jovita
Fuentes‘ portrayal of Cio-cio san in Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly at
Italy’s Teatro Municipale di Piacenza. Her performance was hailed as the “most
sublime interpretation of the part”. This is all the more significant because it
happened at a time when the Philippines and its people were scarcely heard of in
Europe. Prior to that, she was teaching at the University of the Philippines
Conservatory of Music (1917) before leaving for Milan in 1924 for further voice
studies. After eight months of arduous training, she made her stage debut at the
Piacenza. She later embarked on a string of music performances in Europe
essaying the roles of Liu Yu in Puccini’s Turnadot, Mimi in Puccini’s La
Boheme, Iris in Pietro Mascagni’s Iris, the title role of Salome (which
composer Richard Strauss personally offered to her including the special role of
Princess Yang Gui Fe in Li Tai Pe). In recognition of these achievements, she
was given the unprecedented award of “Embahadora de Filipinas a su Madre
Patria” by Spain.
Jovita Fuentes
Her dream to develop the love for opera among
her countrymen led her to found the Artists’
Guild of the Philippines, which was responsible
for the periodic “Tour of Operaland”
productions. Her life story has been
documented in the biography Jovita Fuentes:
A Lifetime of Music (1978) written by Lilia H.
Chung, and later translated into Filipino by
Virgilio Almario.
Jovita Fuentes
Life
Autobiography
Felipe Padilla de Leon
 Felipe Padilla de Leon, composer, conductor, and scholar,
Filipinized western music forms, a feat aspired for by Filipino
composers who preceded him. The prodigious body of De Leon’s
musical compositions, notably the sonatas, marches and
concertos have become the full expression of the sentiments and
aspirations of the Filipino in times of strife and of peace, making
him the epitome of a people’s musician. He is the recipient of
various awards and distinctions: Republic Cultural Heritage
Award, Doctor of Humanities from UP, Rizal Pro-Patria Award,
Presidential Award of Merit, Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award,
among others.
Felipe Padilla de Leon
De Leon’s orchestral music include Mariang
Makiling Overture (1939), Roca Encantada,
symphonic legend (1950), Maynila
Overture (1976), Orchesterstuk(1981); choral
music like Payapang Daigdig, Ako’y
Pilipino, Lupang Tinubuan, Ama Namin;
and songs Bulaklak, Alitaptap, and Mutya ng
Lahi.
Felipe Padilla de Leon
Alitaptap
Performed by
Philippine Madrigal
Singers
Andrea Veneracion
 Andrea Veneracion, is highly esteemed for her achievements as
choirmaster and choral arranger. Two of her indispensable
contributions in culture and the arts include the founding of the
Philippine Madrigal Singers and the spearheading of the
development of Philippine choral music. A former faculty
member of the UP College of Music and honorary chair of the
Philippine Federation of Choral Music, she also organized a
cultural outreach program to provide music education and
exposure in several provinces. Born in Manila on July 11, 1928,
she is recognized as an authority on choral music and
performance and has served as adjudicator in international
music competitions.
Andrea Veneracion
Founder of
Philippine
Madrigal Singers
Honorata “Atang” dela Rama
 Honorata “Atang” Dela Rama was formally honored as the Queen of
Kundiman in 1979, then already 74 years old singing the same song
(“Nabasag na Banga”) that she sang as a 15-year old girl in the
sarsuela Dalagang Bukid. Atang became the very first actress in the very
first Tagalog film when she essayed the same role in the sarsuela’s film
version. As early as age seven, Atang was already being cast in Spanish
zarzuelas such as Mascota, Sueño de un Vals, and Marina. She counts
the role though of an orphan in Pangarap ni Rosa as her most rewarding
and satisfying role that she played with realism, the stage sparkling with
silver coins tossed by a teary-eyed audience. Atang firmly believes that the
sarswela and the kundiman expresses best the Filipino soul, and has even
performed kundiman and other Filipino songs for the Aetas or Negritos of
Zambales and the Sierra Madre, the Bagobos of Davao and other Lumad of
Mindanao.
Honorata “Atang” dela Rama

 “Reyna ng Kundiman”
 Autobiography