The 38th edition of the Bamboo Organ Festival opens with a two-part program of choral music for double choir.  The first part will feature composers from the late Renaissance period: Lassus, Victoria, and Monteverdi.  In the second part will be heard Spanish Baroque music in the syle of villancicos, a motet by J.S. Bach, and the Gloria from a Mass for Double Choir by Portuguese composer Esteves.  Performers will be the Las Piñas Boys Choir and the UP Education Chorale in face-to-face formation; vocal soloists Sherla Najera and Stefanie Quintin, sopranos; Ily Matthew Maniano, countertenor; tenors Ervin Lumauag and Joel Aquino; Mark Abesia, baritone;  organists Peter Van de Velde (Belgium) and Armando Salarza, and the Manila Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eudenice Palaruan.

The Festival traditionally devotes one evening to less serious musical fare performed by noted popular artists in the inner courtyard of the church.  Featured this year is well-known singer Jamie Rivera, who very recently composed and sang the hymn in honor of the newly canonized Filipino saint San Pedro Calungsod.  The front acts will be provided by former member of 14K under Maestro  Ryan Cayabyab and a former member  of the Passage Band Trinna Alcantara, and Deep Projek , a newly-formed band headed by Gerald “Jek” Manuel, IAXE’s former lead vocalist and the voice behind the hit song “Ako’y Sa Iyo, Ika’y Sa ‘kin Lamang”.

While the Bamboo Organ traditionally is played on every night of the Festival, one concert is specially dedicated to organ music, performed on both the Bamboo Organ in the church and the larger contemporary instrument in the school auditorium. Guest artist this year is Peter Van de Velde from Belgium. He taught himself how to play the organ at the age of nine, and by the time he was 12 became organist of the local church in the little Flemish village of Doel. He went on to further studies first at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, and then at the Royal Antwerp Conservatory of Music while winning competition awards, and ending with a Masters degree in the instrument. He is now Titular Organist of the Antwerp Cathedral and organist of the church of St. Michael; he performs regularly all over Europe, and has an extensive discography list, the most recent of which is a CD of Bach transcriptions which has earned critical acclaim.

Long-time friend and frequent performer at the Festival, organist Dr. Johann Trummer (Austria) and Armando Salarza , Titular Organist of the Bamboo Organ of Las Piñas will be featured artists in this evening’s concert.  Following the format of the Evening of Organ Music, the first half of the program will be performed in church on the Bamboo Organ by the artists, bothsingly and in ensemble, with the assistance of the Manila Symphony Orchestra.  They will be doing works by Cabanilles, Correa de Arauxo, J.S. Bach, and Mozart. The second part will be played on the organin the school auditorium, and will include compositions of J.S. Bach and his two sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel.