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When I first glanced at our department's workshop schedule, I ranted about who the hell was Coke Bonipata who was scheduled to give us a talk from 6-8pm. Actually, that blow-out was more from the fact that the session would be beyond our normal office hours! At 8pm I should already be home! The session actually lasted less than 2 hours and what I initially thought would be a waste of time---turned out to be a magical night of music!
Alfonso "Coke" Bolipata, as my boss, S'Paul, described him, is God's gift to Philippine music! He is a premier violinist, who, at age 8 years old studied under the wings of Oscar Yatco. At age 14, he won 1st Prize at the National Musical Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA). He furthered his studies abroad at the New School of Music in Philadelphia under Jascha Brodsky, Indiana University under James Buswell, in New York under Felix Galimir, and at the Julliard School under Dorothy Delay. He was concertmaster of the Indiana University Orchestra. He received acclaim for his performances, including that of his performing the solo passages in Strauss’ Le Petit Bourgeois Gentl Homme. He is the only Filipino who has ever participated in the premier season of the Miami-based New World Symphony in 1988 and was the soloist of the symphony’s performance of Berstein’s Serenade for Solo Violin, Chamber Orchestra and Percussion in 1991. During the previous year, he was also the soloist of Beijing’s Central Philharmonic Orchestra in their performance of Chausson’s Poeme which incidentally was also conducted by another Filipino Francisco Feliciano. He is also a composer and an actor(he played Ariel in the independent film "Boses" released in 2008).
When we arrived at the GCF Auditorium, Coke was already playing a tune which I recognized but can't seem to remember the title. Truth be known, I don't know him by face either(forgive me oh great teachers!). I was thinking that he was just some GCF musician practicing. Being into classical music, I even requested him to play Mozart's "Eine Klein Nachmusik" which he gladly obliged to. I was about to request for Vivaldi's "Spring" next if he was not approached by S'Paul. It was only that time that poor me realized that he was the speaker!
Coke shared with us the sacrifices that he needed to go through to become the great artist that he is; his love for the violin and how music allowed him to influence the poor children of San Migues, Zambales, by putting up the music school, Casa San Miguel, in his family's mango orchard when he returned home from his studies at Julliard School of Music. In between his sharing he serenaded us with classical numbers which included "Hating Gabi", "Sana'y Wala ng Wakas", and "Sa Kabukiran".
Thank you S'Paul for inviting Coke to our session. It was truly a very magical night indeed! Oh, and the food was great as well!
Inserted is an excerp of Coke's up and personal performance for the Information Management Division of Jollibee. Enjoy!
Related link http://nonomaca.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-is-there-to-classical-music.html
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