Alumni Update June 5 – 11, 2023

Tenor soloist Rigel Dela Cruz Suarez and pianist Dr. Elizabeth Susan Vista Suarez, serenaded members of the Silliman University Alumni Association of New York and New Jersey (SUAANYNJ) at an alumni chapter gathering last June 4, 2023, at Battery Park, New York, just close by the Freedom Tower. The gathering was also in celebration of Philippine Independence Day as SUAANYNJ participated in the Manhattan Parade earlier that day.

Suarez sings tenor soloist for the Ating Pamana choral group who toured the US in 2003 and was sent by Silliman University (SU) to Alaska as gratitude and goodwill ambassadors. He was also a soloist of the SU Campus Choristers who also went to the US for a concert tour in 1999 and 2001. He played Nono sa ponso and Mr. Litigator in “Ampalaya the Musical” by Maestro Michael Dadap. He was the regional champion and national finalist for Kundiman Fiesta in 1994. A member and soloist of the SU Church Covenant Choir, he previously worked as a technical support specialist, graphic artist, and website administrator at the SU Office of Information and Publications. He is currently the director of the SU Instructional Media and Technology Center.

Vista Suarez is a teacher, school administrator, choral director, pianist, writer, and visual artist. From 1990-2000, she was the director of the SU School of Music and Fine Arts, which later became the College of Performing and Visual Arts where she has been serving as the dean since 2010. She was the SU Cultural Affairs Committee (CAC) chairman and cultural officer from 1990-2000 and 2008-2016. She is presently the CAC Advisory Council chair and the director of the SU Covenant Choir and SU Campus Choristers. Her choral experience includes training choirs of all ages. She trained and conducted the SU Campus Choristers, winning local, regional, and national awards. She is also a member of the Dumaguete City Arts Council. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from SU; a master’s degree in Choral Conducting from Combs College of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and a bachelor’s degree with a piano major, cum laude, from SU. She was awarded Most Inspiring Teacher of the Republic of the Philippines in 2022 and is a recipient of the 2021 Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Kaisa Sa Sining (KSS) Award for the Visayas region, as an Outstanding Artist and Cultural worker. In 2018 she was also awarded the Gawad Nicanor Abelardo Most Outstanding Music Educator of the Philippines, a centennial award from the University of the Philippines. In 2018, she was awarded a post-doctoral grant to study Music Therapy in Eastern Michigan, USA, and in 1997, she was awarded Most Productive Teacher in Silliman.

The New York Serenade of Suarez and Vista Suarez was made possible through the invitation of SU Trustee, Dr. Evangeline Bravo-Manjares.