Gerard Salonga goes back to film music

MANILA, Philippines - Conductor Gerard Salonga takes a breather from classical music to turn to what he calls sounds “of a more hip genre” on Oct. 16 and to pay tribute to composers of film music on Nov. 13.

The film composers getting orchestral tribute in the season concert of FILharmoniKA are a group called The Magnificent Seven namely Elmer Bernstein, John Barry, Danny Elfman, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone and John Williams.

Said the conductor: “I’m particularly excited about performing Herrmann’s Psycho: A Narrative for String Orchestra, a real crazy stuff — no pun intended.”

FILharmoniKA orchestra was one of the attractions of CCP’s first orchestra festival, which projected the country’s existing orchestral ensembles.

The conductor had no qualms doing music with showbiz flavor such as Terry’s Theme from Limelight by Charlie Chaplin and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from Westside Story which was made into a film many years back.

To be sure, Gerard admits that his newly-born music baby is a “gigging” orchestra which means they are open to varied assignments from pop to jazz to OPM and classical.

In fact, FILharmoniKA was founded in 2005 as a support group for a recording studio meant to serve the commercial recording and film scoring market. This was at a time when film scores were being outsourced out of Los Angeles to cities like Prague.

Their first film venture — with strong support from their partner, the Ambient Media — was scoring the Filipino cartoon film Dayo where Lea Salonga sang the theme song.

With more “gigs” on its lap, FILharmoniKA is probably coping better than most unsubsidized orchestras in the country (only the PPO of CCP is). “We’re also very fortunate to have a strong support system consisting of people who love music and want to see a Filipino orchestra really walking the walk.”

But since the orchestra festival is meant to save what is left of the country’s unsubsidized orchestras, Gerard said that the government and the existing cultural institutions can help a lot by way of helping fund private cultural endeavors.

Points out the conductor: “I know the government has a lot of other things to think about, but the common problems all boil down to funding, funding, funding. I think we should follow the German model in that sense which initiates state funding. In Hong Kong, it’s not just the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra that receives government funding. The Hong Kong Sinfonietta and City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong also receive substantial financial support through the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. I also feel the government should bring back the program that sends deserving music students to Europe to study, then come back and play in the PPO.”

He also thinks that cultural institutions like the CCP and NCCA should work closely with government to get more people listening to classical music, particularly at the grade school level. “Filipinos are so naturally musical and the tastes could be so much deeper than what they are now. We need to really destroy the idea that classical music is high brow and only for the rich or highly educated. The first time I ever conducted Sibelius’ Finlandia was in Taytay, Rizal, and the large crowd gathered at the town plaza knew the music by heart. From appearance, it didn’t look like there were a lot of millionaires there, nor did it look like there were a bunch of Harvard diplomas. But they love the music because it’s in their culture. The nation can learn something from the people of Rizal, Cavite and other provinces where classical music is absorbed into the local culture. People need to realize that culture is not a ‘head and money’ thing; it’s an ‘ear and heart’ thing.”

The festival, for one, allowed his orchestra to play in the CCP main theater. “I know there are mixed feelings about the acoustics, but it is what it is. The festival will certainly feed my curiosity about how my orchestra sounds in there.”

Still, there are other things that the CCP can do to help other orchestras.

He said: “I think the CCP should significantly lower its rental cost to non-resident orchestras. That will do a lot more than any honorarium they could muster for the participants in this festival. Right now this is the symphony hall of the people of the Philippines, and every Philippine orchestra has the right to perform in there.”

Moreover, Gerard said that the lessons he learned from working with classical artists like Cecile Licad and (cellist) Richard Bumping have been more than what formal schooling could have provided. “The most significant lesson I picked up from Richard and Cecile was the idea of natural music making. With them, nothing is forced or contrived. Everything is just natural and utterly sincere. These people know how to navigate the rockiest terrain of music with taste, ease and grace. They also reminded me that geniuses don’t need to have high-in-the-sky egos.”