Pundaquit Virtuosi with Coke Bolipata
Chamber Concert 1
February 18, 2012
Saturday, 6PM
Ramon Corpus Hall
Free Admission
09155026802 for Reservations
An evening of Chamber Music featuring Pundaquit Virtuosi, the resident string ensemble led by international violin virtuoso Alfonso "Coke" Bolipata,_ performing works by Mozart, Dvorak, Beethoven, Brahms, Medelssohn, Strauss, Waltzes and much more.
Pundaquit Virtuosi is a chamber ensemble composed of scholars in of CASA San Miguel. What these special children share, economic background notwithstanding, is their common talent in music and a dedication to the chamber music repertoire. Many of its members have won prizes at the National Music Competition for Young Artists and chosen as scholars at the Philippine High School for the Arts. They have been featured as well in numerous concerts and television productions as well as documentaries, both foreign and local, for their unique contribution to the development of classical music in the Philippines today. They are the main feature at the Pundaquit Festival sharing their talents with the community by performing as well in plazas and schools, with numerous performances in Manila, Tarlac, Zambales, Pampanga and Baguio with noted artists such as the Loboc Children’s Choir, British cellist Matthew Barley, American cellist David Eggar, and Filipina pianist Cecile Licad. Last year they were the sole Philippine representative to the 2009 Tianjin International Children’s Arts and Culture Festival and most recently toured Jakarta in celebration of friendship ties between Indonesia and the Philippines.
Alfonso “Coke” Bolipata is the one of the country’s leading artists, a seasoned performer, teacher, writer, and administrator, earning him wide recognition for his performances and efforts in cultural development, including the 2000 TOYM Award (Ten Outstanding Young Men), the Katha Award for his recording “Pelikula,” the 2001 Aliw Award as Best Instrumentalist for his performance of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, the 2002 Gawad Ng Maynila Award, the 1997 National Book Award (Book Design) for his children’s book Water In The Ring Of Fire, and the NCCA Alab Ng Haraya Award.
Mr. Bolipata started the violin at the age of 8 with Oscar c. Yatco as a scholar of Stella G. Brimo, and continued with Basilio Manalo and Rizalina Buenaventura. At 12 he won First Prize in the National Music Competitions for Young Artists, subsequently leaving to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. His teachers include Dorothy Delay, Jascha Brodsky, Felix Galimir, and James Buswell. He has performed worldwide as soloist and chamber musician in the major halls in America including Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fischer Hall, Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, and Kennedy Center, as well as numerous concerts all over America, Canada, Munich, Frankfurt, Paris, St. Nazaire, Japan, and Indonesia. He has performed with the Beijing Philharmonic, the Nagoya Philharmonic, and the Bulgaria Radio Orchestra, and a regular soloist of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. He has recorded the Mozart Concerto #5 and the Kasilag Concerto with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, and Saint-Saens Rondo Capriccioso with the Sophia Philharmonic of Bulgaria.
In 1990 he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Art (Washington) and Artists Affiliates (New York) to bring culture to the rural areas of America. Shortly thereafter, he returned to the Philippines and established CASA San Miguel, a community-based arts center in Zambales that integrates arts and the rural community, working with over 100 gifted children from the community. In 2000 he co-founded the Metro Manila Community Orchestra, and the Symphony By The Sea Community Orchestra in Subic SBMA. Mr. Bolipata served as a Trustee of the Cultural Center of the Philippines for 18 months, served as Executive Director of Miriam College’s Music Center for Applied Music, and is currently a commissioner to the Philippine National Commission of UNESCO.