Presenting Gerard Salonga -- the musical composer and orchestra conductor- A Point Of Awareness

Much has already been said about the toast of Broadway, Ms. Lea Salonga. But at her recent New Year "Millennium Concert" at the Westin Philippine Plaza and Lea's "Homecoming Concert" at the PICC in mid-January, the audience discovered Gerard Salonga. It was he who projected a "different" Lea, knowing well her natural alto voce. She was no longer the tragic Vietnamese bride of Ms. Saigon nor the passionate rebel Eponine of Les Miserables. It was Lea herself, at her best, seasoned at the age of 29. In professional theater standards winning the Lawrence Olivier in the demanding theater district of London at 19, and after a few years time the coveted Oscar Awards of Broadway in New York, Lea's achievement is equivalent to a Masters Degree of the Performing Arts. (I won't be surprised if she "lectures" these days at her new classes in Fordham University in New York.)

Against the exuberant performance of the Manila Youth Symphony Orchestra, Lea's clear voice soared up to the heights of the grand ballroom chandeliers while her lifetime songs, tales of her childhood, adolescence and adulthood filled the hearts of the audience. No longer behind the scene but together with her on stage was brother Gerard, who at 27 could professionally wield his baton as symphony orchestra conductor of both the Manila Youth Symphony Orchestra and for the bigger crowd at PICC, the older and very professional Manila Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. For weeks, he arranged meticulously the full scores of each of the concert's repertoire, simultaneously drawing out each set of musical sheets for the wood-wind instruments, the percussion, the brass and the string instruments.

Gerard Salonga graduated summa cum laude and holds a master's degree at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston. He is a recipient of Berklee's Contemporary Writing and Production Achievement Award in 1998. For two years he joined the Berklee's Songwriter's Concert and the Berklee Student-On-Vocation Concert.

He has made compositions and arrangements which are currently being used by the jazz band and brass quintet of the US Air Force Band of the West, Los Angeles. He worked in L.A. as an orchestrator and music copyist for Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Television Animation. Among his projects were: The Animaniacs, Big Daddy, Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me, Brian Mcknight, The Mask of Zorro and George Duke. Back in the Philippines, he was orchestra conductor of Repertory Philippines production of Carousel and wrote special songs for Miong. He has likewise performed and made arrangements for Geneva Cruz, Martin Nievera, Ivy Violan and Ryan Cayabyab. His latest recording credits include Lea's two latest albums entitled By heart and In Love. At the moment he has a two-week deadline to meet with sound engineer Agnes Manalo, also a Berklee graduate, to cut the CD of Lea's Homecoming Concert.

Gerard is two years younger than Lea. So he was not yet in school when Lea was a pre-schooler at O.B. Montessori in Angeles, Pampanga. The family moved to Manila so both Lea and Gerard could continue their schooling at the O.B. Montessori Center in Greenhills and at the same time to enrich their cultural experiences in the big city. Both graduated from the O.B. Montessori Professional High School in 1988 and 1990.

I fondly recall little chubby Gerard with his dark-rimmed glasses always cheerfully discussing anything under the sun with his classmates. Being so articulate in "American" English, he excelled as well in all school activities from sports (golf), vegetable gardening, scouting activities specially the camping activity in the countryside. This was distressing for Lea who was exempted from outdoor activities due to her allergies. Otherwise, Lea and Gerard were always a team.

Their tall, handsome, Pampangueno dad, Captain Feliciano Salonga, a graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy of King's Point, New York together with mom, Ligaya from Pulopandan, Negros were into all the school activities both Gerard and Lea were involved in. Gerard's tall, poised and pleasant bearing, "mana sa tatay" (inherited from his father) has always been an asset whether he played the role of a priest officiating the complete Baptism ceremony, a Montessori lesson on the religious sacrament or a smart angel messenger together with "sis" Lea way back in 1979, when the school held a musical fashion drama, Oh God... It's Christmas Again in Montessori.

Working together continued when Lea and Gerard joined Repertory Philippines. Both hosted a weekly television show as well. Lea compares this closeness to the Carpenters, Richard and Karen. After Lea's most successful solo as Annie at the age of 9, their mother, Ligaya encouraged the school to put up regular musical presentations which could involve more children. Since O.B. Montessori had to raise funds to acquire their own school land instead of merely renting large houses, I decided to invest on this and our regular theater venue was the old Rizal Theater. It was the era of Martial Law. Our professional theater director then was Freddie Santos who would train 250 children to sing and dance. He would write together with us story lines to uphold freedom such as that of Tommorowland, Libertyland, Montessoriland and the Small White Way.

By the time we were doing Fairy Tales I and Fairy Tales II and more Broadway excerpts it was Gus Aldeguer who became our theater director. His company would train 400 students from pre-school to high school, this time at the PICC. Up to present, Gus directs all our theater presentations at the 8th floor air-conditioned theater, Maria Montessori Hall that has a seating capacity of 2000.

In high school, Gerard was transformed to a six-foot tall young man, still excelling in all subjects. His forte were writing, elocution and argumentation and debate. Actually in our high school year book, Quo Vadis '90, this was how he was fondly described by his classmates:

Ito ang aming kaibigan si Gerard Salonga,

Na kapatid ni Miss Saigon na si Lea Salonga.

Magaling tumugtog ng piano't kumanta,

Mahilig sa acting, tumpak sa drama.

Masipag si Gerard at siya'y matalino,

Ngunit pag tinotoyo ay naghuhuramentado.

Mahilig sa golf, kaya't siya'y maitim,

Kinakalaban si Grace na isa pang madilim.

Noon ay iyakin ngunit hindi na ngayon

No'oy korteng pandesal, ngayo'y hugis pandilemon.

Madamot sa lunchtime, hindi kami binibigyan,

Huwag ninyo lang lalapitan pag mabilog ang buwan.

Both Lea and he so mastered the recitation of the terrifying poem of Edgar Allan Poe, Tell Tale Heart, that it is still much talked about during the school poetry festival every year. His senior adviser remembers that Max V. Soliven's daily columns inspired him to become a journalist at first so he majored in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Ateneo De Manila University, the right preparation for writers. During these four years, however, the call of music became stronger as he was regularly exposed to the professional backstage preparation in the theaters of London and New York where Lea worked.

After Ateneo, Gerard went to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Adjusting to the academic was easy but according to him, "What took a bit of learning was all the cooking, housework, and grocery shopping I had to do by myself."

Berklee had an exciting curriculum geared primarily towards preparing the students for work in the music industry. Unlike most music conservatories where students are focused on perfecting their playing or writing classical western music, he says "Berklee has three recording studios with complete editing and synchronization equipment for students to either record orchestra, or do film scoring. You will typically find students in a recording studio, or in front of a computer-based digital audio workstation."

The classes he took ranged from band arranging to classical conducting to progressive rock analysis. He adds "Berklee's classroom is that of the future! Each has a sliding white board with a pentagram. At one push of a button, the overhead projector would show you any local or international internet reference material. An electric keyboard with compact disc recorded can also be found there."

The music he studied included the works of lgor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland to Oscar Peterson and Keith Emerson.

"Most of Berklee's faculty members are experienced film scorers from Hollywood. Berklee has divided its curriculum into different and very specific majors like performance, songwriting, jazz composition, film scoring and music synthesis. "He did it all except "performance."

Gerard majored in Contemporary Writing and Production, which used to be called Commercial Arranging. Today it includes recording studio production classes. Contemporary musical arrangers are not only expected to know how to write for various ensembles and styles, but also to be at home in the studio or in front of the computer.

After he graduated in May of 1998, Gerard moved to Los Angeles for post-curricular practical training. This is a 12-month period in which foreign students in the US are allowed to work in a field related to their finished course. He joined the American Federation of Musicians. He then landed a job as a librarian at the music library of Sony Pictures. This is where sheet music is prepared for commercial recordings, live performances, and film scoring sessions. According to him the word "librarian" means the guy who does all the photocopying and binding of scores and parts.

A few months after he was promoted to "proofreading." He describes this as an extremely tedious job. He once worked straight from 6 a.m. to 12 noon the following day. Soon after that he became a copyist at the office. The copyist is third from the top in what is referred to in L.A. as the "totem pole." The music goes from the composer to the orchestrator to the copyist. Towards the later part of his stay he started writing orchestrations.

Gerard considers his L.A. experience extremely beneficial. "As a copyist and proofreader at one of the busiest offices in town, I got to see the work of many of the major arrangers and orchestrators. Although my experiences at Sony did not have any direct effect on my abilities as a music director, they did teach me about reaching a certain level of professionalism. I learned to work more efficiently, and that working efficiently means that sometimes one must sacrifice his or her personal time just to get the job done."

Gerard arrived from the US in mid-November of 1999. He started writing in the first week of December. He wrote 17 arrangements for orchestra in three weeks. Wittingly he says "For the sake of reference, the orchestra arranging class at Berklee allows two weeks to put the finishing touches on one arranging project. One song in two weeks. I did 17 songs in three and a half weeks!"

Right at the concert four microphones were set including one to catch the audience reaction and applause for the CD cut. Gerard will stand as the producer of the recording. Having a complete standard studio equipment, the mixing and mastering sessions are being done in his own project studio--right in his own home.

In their journey of life, both Gerard and Lea have finally reached their professional stage. And with these, they have chosen to come home. For after all, Happiness is two kinds of ice cream, tying your shoe for the very 1st time... Happiness is playing the drum in your own school band. And happiness is walking hand in hand... Happiness is singing together when the day is thru. And happiness is all to sing with you... Happiness is being alone every now and then. And happiness is coming home again.

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