Alumnus Makes it to Banaue Int'l Music Composition Competition

A graduate of the College of Performing and Visual Arts (COPVA) was named one of the composer-fellow to the 2018 Banaue International Music Composition Competition (BIMCC).

Jem Robert Bautista Talaroc, who finished his undergraduate degree in Music major in Composition in 2008, was among the 20 fellows selected for the week-long Banaue Music Composition Immersion Program.

He was selected for his composition, “Kabunyan”, which refers to the god Kabunyan, the highest among all the Ifugao gods and to Kabunyan the Skyworld, the place where, according to Ifugao myth, all gods live.

Talaroc said, “It is in the mythological, the unreal, the paranormal, the unreachable, and the unbelievable beauty exemplified in the mountain ranges of Cordillera, that the essence of this piece is fully yet humbly embodied.”

Of the 20 fellows, ten will be chosen to perform during the finals night at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on July 25 where the grand winner will be receiving a USD12,000 cash prize.

The competition is part of the Banaue Rice Terraces Restoration Project which aims to create Banaue-inspired symphonic works and use it to promote awareness of the current situation of the rice terraces.