Ang talambuhay ni cecile licad

Licad was once invited to sit in the jury of the Chopin Competition in the s, but the jury deliberations fell on the day of her engagement with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Recalled Licad: “Apparently Pollini had to have six strong espressos before he played, and he splashed his face with ice water.

That was his ritual. He was Claudio Abbado’s best friend and favorite musical partner.

Rowena arrieta In November , the project was repeated in London with two performances in Barbican Hall followed by a recording of the live music at Abbey Road studios and a tour of Europe in spring of is in the planning stages. She appeared as soloist in the Steinway Piano Sesquicentennial Celebration at Carnegie Hall, performing six Rachmaninoff songs with tenor Ben Heppner, and has made television appearances with Mstislav Rostropovich. As a highly regarded chamber musician, she has performed regularly with ensembles such as the New York Chamber Symphony, St. She also appeared as guest soloist on tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Leipzig, Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Cologne, among other European cities. She has an all-Gottschalk recording on the Naxos label.

I was very lucky because at that time, Maestro Abbado only performed with a small handful of soloists. That I was one of them was a great honor I will never forget!”

Pollini’s friendship with Abbado started as both of them were like-minded left-wing idealists. They explored radical ways of bringing classical music to factory workers.

Another project of Abbado and Pollini was a series of concerts at La Scala for employees and students.

Like Pollini, Licad enjoyed performing not just for Metro Manila’s elite audiences, but also for teachers, farmers and fisherfolk of the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

Over the years, I have brought the pianist to different outreach destinations in the country, wanting to give my friends their first Licad experience.

In , while preparing for Licad’s recital at St.

Paul University in Tuguegarao City, I took a quick bus ride to Ilagan City in Isabela to ask the poet-priest Paco Albano to watch the concert.

Picture of cecil licad

Cecile Licad with Sen. Loren Legarda after the Met concert on March 19, In the audience were music lovers who saw her formal debut at the Philamlife Theater at age seven, actor and visual artist Ivi Avellana Cosio and columnist Marivic Rufino, among others. Cecile Licad during her Philamlife Theater debut at age 7 in I have never heard the Philippine Philharmonic play so excellently and, of course, the reason is Maestro Nowak in full control.

Although he had a few of her CDs, he had never seen Licad in a live performance.

The good priest emailed me after the concert:

Dear Pablo,
Grace and peace!
I hope all is well with you and family.
Thank you for snatching me to experience a Cecile Licad recital.
Quite an experience, I tell you!
Surely God has consecrated her hands to play music, especially that of the classical masters.
In playing the masters, Cecile is a musician who makes one believe that the world is made of sound—sometimes as impromptu as a surprise, sometimes a waltz, sometimes nocturne, sometimes scherzo, or whatever great art rightly tells us.
Indeed, her music, like life, is about possibilities.
Who was playing that night?

Cecile the piano, or the piano Cecile. I think it was the piano that brought out Cecile the music, especially in the nature of mysticism of the two legends of St. Francis (Liszt).
The music overflowed from her mouth, her eyes, her entire body, yes, into me/us. And was I myself playing Cecile and the piano?
The encores were revealing.

Cecil licad biography Cecile Licad and son Otavio. I first saw her in Albay in at age 14, she received the Leventritt Gold Medal at 19, a bride at 26, a mother at 29 and still a seasoned musician to this day. That means 51 years of learning and playing the piano. She welcomed with a solo recital at Weill Hall Carnegie January 18 and at the end of the last note, the audience rose to their feet to give her a standing ovation. Audience and co-awardees were ecstatic.

Cecile was not only great with the big scores, but also with the ditties. She reminded me of Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda’s Odes Elementales. The poet makes yellow birds, chestnuts, tomatoes, watches look extraordinarily beautiful.
Cecile is the Pablo Neruda of Music. There is nothing prosaic in this world unless we make it so.
Unlike the God-distracted nun who gave dos palabras, I didn’t think of God in my tonal center.
God was humble that night.

I imagine he followed the rules of/for concertgoers, relaxed in silence and head music outside holding centers. And it was good.

Sincerely,
Fr. Paco

Meanwhile, feminist and political activist Princess Nemenzo who raved over the March 19 Met performance said, “She should be named National Artist for Music!

Cecile licad biography philippines And much later, when the pianist broke her shoe heel before a command performance, Marcos provided her with a pair of her own now-notorious shoes. Other gifts from Marcos have included concert dresses and a black Steinway grand piano, one of two Licad keeps in the living room of her Manhattan apartment. While acknowledging the importance of this assistance to her career, Licad disassociates herself from any extramusical involvement with Marcos. I told her I got married, had a baby, things like this. Licad, 27, was born into a musical family: Her mother is a concert pianist-turned-teacher, and her grand-uncle is a composer-pianist.

She has represented Filipino artistry and excellence over decades on the world stage, until the present, and manifested as well Filipino women’s capacity for achieving their best.”

She might as well be echoing the distinguished New York-based music lecturer David Dubal in his radio show The Piano Matters. She referred to Cecile Licad as “the great Filipina piano artist who has perhaps the largest technical equipment and musical imagination of any living pianist.”

The street where Licad used to live in Quezon City is a cross-section of the haves and have-nots.

On one side are the unfenced makeshift houses and the street urchins huddled in the corner store, a scene straight from Lino Brocka’s Jaguar.

Cecile Licad will surely go down in the country’s history as the youngest pianist to enthrall Philippe Entremont, Rudolf Serkin, Alexander Schneider and Seiji Ozawa — without trying too hard.

The street where she lived will surely be remembered, too.

Here is the official video of Cecile Licad’s March concert in Manila: