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

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. 

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.

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.