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An International Musical Composition and Competition to Promote Banaue Rice Terraces Rehabilitation


2018 banaue international music competition
The people behind this initiative



Remember the press launching of the 2018 Banaue International Music Composition and Competition I joined last March? Well, here's another update.  Looks like the group behind this never-been-done advocacy to save one of the Philippines' pride and a UNESCO heritage site is on its way to turning their goals to reality. The fact that no one really gives a damn is a reality that is taking too long to solve some concerns about the majestic rice terraces of Banaue like  soil erosion & degradation, land abandonment and the millennials of today find farming a job that they won't be interested to do.


Yesterday, another event was held at Makati Peninsula Hotel to update what's the going on with this competition. A total of 84 entries from all over the world were accepted from the meticulous process of choosing the ones who deserve to be part of this momentous music competion in Banaue.screenings and deliberations, 20 composers were chosen to go on an immersion program in Banaue, The chosen pieces will then be performed by an orchestra at the Grand Finals Night at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on July 25, 2018.

The grand winner of the Banaue International Music Competiton and Composition wi bring home a total US$12,000.  Two runners-up will get US$6,000.  If you want to help and be entertained as well, you can buy entrance tickets to the grand finals night (Php 1, 000 - Php 5, 000). Hundred percent of the profit will be utilized to rebuild the terraces in Banaue, Ifugao particularly in Barangay View Point. 



Banaue International Music Composition Competition Chairman and Universal Harvester, Inc. President/CEO Dr. Milagros O. How
Chairman and Universal Harvester, Inc.President/CEO Dr. Milagros O. How


Who are the lucky contestants of BIMCC 2018?


Christian Joshua Padre Ansale is a Filipino composer and arranger from San Mateo, Rizal. He is currently taking up Bachelor of Music - Major in Composition and Theory at the University of the Philippines. He is also a member of UP Composers of New Music.

Bracha Bdil is a compose and a pianist from Jerusalem, Israel. She has a degree in Music Education from Levinsky College and a Master’s degree in Music Education and Composition from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
Her awards and recognition include: first prize in the wolf Durmashkin Composition Award, Germany (2018), and the first prize in the Yardena Alotin Composition Competition, Barllan University, Israel (2016). Her repertoire includes orchestral music, chamber, vocal and electronic music, as well as music for dance and theater.

Theodore Broutzakis is a pianist and composer from Athens, Greece. He completed his musical studies at the National Conservatory of Athens. He has played in numerous concerts and recitals in Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Israel and Cyprus. He has composed over 80 works, among which are 2 symphonies, 2 string quartets, 1 suite for orchestra, chamber music, songs, dances in Greek style, chorals, music for the disabled, and the theatrical and film music.

Jan Neland Cabuguas is a composer from Philippines. He studied music at the University of Santo Tomas. He was part of the UST Liturgikon Vocal Ensemble, the UST Symphony Band, and UST Symphony Orchestra as violinist.


Jemuel Dave Dagta is a composer, arranger, keyboardist, and bandurria player. He earned his Bacheelor of Music degree in Composition from the University of the Philippines, graduating Magna Cum Laude and class valedictorian of the College of Music in 2016. He studied composition under the tutelage of Professor Josefino "Chino" Toledo. In 2015, his composition “Pulso” for flute and orchestra was performed by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, where it won the Yoshiro Irino Composers Prize as a featured work in the 33rd asian Composers League Festival. He is currently a faculty member of St. Scholastica’s College Manila and of the De La Salle College of St. Benilde, where he teaches piano improvisation, music theory, orchestration, Philippine music and composition.


Caterina Di Cecca is an accomplished Italian composer based in Rome. She has received commissions by numerous institution including the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, the Divertimento Ensemble, the Contrasts International Contemporary Music Festival, the biennale di Venezia, the Collegium Musicum Chamber Orchestra of Lviv, the world Exposition 2015, the Associazione Nuova Consonanza, the Stagione Rondo, the Festival Pontino, the Centro Culturale San Fedele and the Fondazione Spinola Banna per I’Arte. She studied Composition at Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Luciano Pelosi, completing her Master with highest distinction. She is currently teaching Harmony and Musical Analysis at the Conservatorio di Foggia Umberto Giordano.


Avner Finberg is an Israeli-American composer and violinist born in Tivon, Israel. His music is often described as lyric and dramatic. Much of his compositional output is in vocal musical including opera, musical theatre and art songs. His awards and accolades includes the 2017 Kirkoskammer Chamber Music Competition, Chamber Music Rochester Award and the Bard Prize, and the 2014 Kol Emet young Composer competition. He represented Israel at the 2013 ISCM New music Days in Vienna, Austria, and attended the composers and the Voice workshop in Brooklyn, NY.


Leon First  is currently on his second year of Master’s studies on compositions at the Academy of Ljubljana. He started playing clarinet when he was six and later graduated from percussion at music high school in his hometown. As a composer, he has created more than 70 symphonic, chamber and solo compositions, which were repeatedly performed at concerts in Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Serbia and Croatia.


Stefano Gianotti is a composer, radio artist and a performer. His repertoire rangers from performance, radio and video-art to chamber music, orchestral scores and songs. His compositions have been performed in many international festival, which includes the Lucca Film Festival in the past two years and back in 2012. In 2010, he founded the band OTEME, a mixed ensemble in-between chamber music and avant-garde-rock. He has won more than a dozen international prizes since 1991.


Banaue International Music Composition Competition Artistic Director Maestro Chino Toledo
Artistic Director Maestro Chino Toledo




TITLE
COMPOSER
AGE
COUNTRY
Tugtugin para sa mga Supling ng Pinagsapin-saping Lupa
Christian Joshua Padre Ansale
21
Philippines (Rizal)
Water Steps
Bracha Bdil
29
Israel
Symphonic Suite “Archipelagos”
Theodoros Broutzakis
49
Greece
Beyond the Mountains
Jan Neland Cabuguas
32
Philippines (Negros Occidental)
Pagpapanumbalik
Jimuel Dave Dagta
27
Philippines (Quezon City)
From Wonder into Wonder. Green Steps to the Sky
Caterina Di Cecca
33
Italy
The Hills of Banaue
Jonathan Feasey (Shaw)
22
UK
Pugaw
Avner Finberg
35
Israel
The Story of Ifugao
Leon Firŝt
23
Slovenia
Hymn to Nature
Eteri Kourbanov
30
Israel
Terraces
Lee Jinjun
27
Singapore
Banaue Symphony
Raquel Sanchez Martínez
23
Spain
Symphonic Poem: The Rise of Banaue
Michele Masin
21
Italy
The Harvest of the Rice
Mario Alfredo Oyanadel Guiñez
27
Chile
Balitúk: The Divided Child
Charlie McCarron
31
USA (Minnesota)
Hudhud
Alessandra Salvati
49
Italy
Lightning Storms on the Terraces
Eduardo Soutullo Garcia
49
Spain
Kabunyan
Jem Robert Bautista Talaroc
27
Philippines (Quezon City)
Crossing the Rice Terraces
Miran Tsalikian
31
Greece
The Ifugao Cloud
Stefano Giannotti
55
Italy


Would like to wish all the contestants good luck? I do hope to travel to Banaue to see these beautiful rice terraces. I have only seen the ones in Sagada when I went there 4 years ago. My utmost wish is to see our very own rice terraces to be as equally preserved of the ones I saw in Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam. 

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