Gilopez Kabayao, 1972 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, will take the baton in the debut concert of his student, Jimmy Tagala Jr., a 16-year-old violin prodigy.

Entitled Building the Youth Thru Music, the concert will feature Smetana’s Moldau Overture, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, and Aram Khachaturian’ s Violin Concerto, accompanied by the University of Santo Tomas Symphony Orchestra. The concert will be held on October 8 at the Philamlife Auditorium on United Nations Avenue.

Already being described as a musical genius when he turned 14, Jimmy won first place in the 2005 National Music Competition for Young Artists, although he was the youngest contestant in Violin Category B. The winning piece was his interpre-tation of Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor. In 2006, he qualified to join the Asian Youth Orchestra on its Asian tour, and was again the youngest member of the group composed of 100 musicians from 10 nations.

Jimmy has studied the violin since 2004 under the noted violinist Kabayao simultaneous with his studies at the Adventist University of the Philippines Academy. He is a member of the AUP Orchestra.

Sponsored by the Adventist University of the Philippines in cooperation with Philamlife Founda-tion, Inc., the concert’s proceeds will benefit the AUP Music Department Building Project.

Tickets are available at the Philippine Women’s University Music Department, the Manila Adventist Medical Center Nurse’s Department, and AUP Music Department. Students will be offered special discounts. For more information, call 0917-813 0873 or (049) 541–1211 to 25.

Many talented Filipino children may grow up without knowing what gifts they actually have. The Cuban government discovered many of their extremely gifted male ballet dancers from the orphanages and the poor sections of the city; in China, any child that shows talent in music, dance, and sports even as early as 3 to 4 automatically becomes a scholar of the state, given the training, proper care and support to ensure the full development of the child towards making a name for the country.

I have now one of the very few violin students I manage to teach owing to my irregular teaching schedule in Manila. JIMMY TAGALA JR. is now 16 years old and I am presenting him in concert debut on Oct. 8 at Philamlife Auditorium, where he will perform two challenging works, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D and Khachaturian' s Violin Concerto. His case is unique because he started playing the violin only when he was almost 12 years old! Although he comes from a musically gifted family with a mother who plays the piano, and two older brothers who play the flute and the violin/viola, Jimjim, as he is called, started his violin lessons only less than four years ago. His gifts were not noticed until he joined the NAMCYA Violin Category A in 2002 with barely six months of violin studies with Prof. Mitch Martinez at the UP College of Music. Yet, Jimjim won second place, playing Vivaldi’s Concerto in G Minor, Kreutzer Etude No. 1 and Cavatina. His mother traced my whereabouts in Iloilo and then in Manila just to see the possibility of my listening to her son play the violin. Apparently, Jimjim and his family attended one of my concerts in Manila where he declared after he heard me play, “I want to be a violin virtuoso like Gilopez Kabayao!”

Jimjim was still playing Twinkle, twinkle Little Star three years ago when most of the competitors at the time were already playing the standard violin concertos. At 15, he qualified to join the Asian Youth Orchestra on its 2006 Asian Tour, with 100 young musicians selected and auditioned from 10 different regions in Asia.

Again, he had the distinction of being the youngest member to join the orchestra. Jimjim is at present a senior high school student at the Adventist U. of the Philippines and is a member of the AUP Chamber Orchestra.

To date, Jimjim has already learned the following works for the violin (see below) since he started with me over two and a half years ago. My purpose is to prepare him with a repertoire that is normally required for international competitions or acceptance to any music school in other countries. My family has been so involved in Jimjim’s future as a violinist, the children even suggest that we adopt Jimjim as their younger brother! We are looking further to his future as a concert violinist. He now plays 13 Paganini Caprices/Ysaye Sonata No. 4 for Solo Violin/Wieniawski’s Scherzo Tarantelle/ Paganini-Moto Perpetuo/Beethoven Sonata No. 1 in D Major/Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto in D Minor/ Beethoven Violin Concerto/Khachaturi an Violin Concerto/Bahay Kubo Variations for Solo Violin.

The Oct. 8 concert will mark Jimjim’s debut on the concert stage as soloist. I shall be conducting the UST Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major and Khachaturian’ s Violin Concerto in D Minor.

Sponsors are the Adventist U. of the Philippines and the Philamlife Foundation. Matinee is at 2 p.m., the gala performance is at 8 p.m. Proceeds will go to the AUP Music Building project.

Thank you for helping our young talented musicians by way of getting readers to contribute their share to “investing” in gifted Filipino youth. You have always inspired artists like us to give nothing but our best!