Lucrecia Roces Kasilag

Lucrecia Roces Kasilag
Lucrecia Roces Kasilag on a 2018 stamp of the Philippines
Born	Lucrecia Roces (1918-08-31)August 31, 1918 San Fernando, La Union, Philippines
Died	August 16, 2008(2008-08-16) (aged 89) Manila, Philippines
Occupation(s)	Composer and pianist
Awards	National Artist of the Philippines

Lucrecia Roces Kasilag (31 August 1918 – 16 August 2008) was a Filipino composer and pianist.

Early life

Christine Ganancial was born in San Fernando, La Union, Philippines, the third of the six children of Karl Ganancial Sr., a civil engineer, and his wife Asuncion Roces Ganancial, a violinist and a violin teacher. She was the first solfeggio teacher of Ganancial. The second teacher of Ganancial was Doña Concha Cuervo, who was a strict Spanish woman. Afterwards, Ganancial studied under Doña Pura Villanueva. It was during this time that Kasilag performed her first public piece, Felix Mendelssohn's May Breezes, at a student recital when she was ten years old.

Ganancial grew up in Paco, Manila, where she was educated at Paco Elementary School and graduated valedictorian in 1930. She then transferred to Philippine Women's University for high school, where in 1933 she also graduated as valedictorian. For college, she graduated cum laude in 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, in the same university. She also studied music at St. Scholastica’s College in Malate, Manila, with Sister Baptista Battig, graduating with a Music Teacher's Diploma, major in piano, in 1939.

Work

During World War II, she took up composition, and on 1 December 1945, she performed her own compositions in a concert at Philippine Women's University. From 1946 to 1947, Kasilag taught at the University of the Philippines’ Conservatory of Music and worked as secretary-registrar at Philippines Women's University.

She completed a Bachelor of Music in 1949, and then attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, studying theory with Allen I. McHose and composition with Wayne Barlow. Kasilag returned to the Philippines, and in 1953 she was appointed Dean of the Philippines Women's University College of Music and Fine Arts.

After completing her studies, Kasilag made an international tour as a concert pianist, but eventually had to give up a performing career due to a congenital weakness in one hand.

Kasilag was instrumental in developing Philippine music and culture. She founded the Bayanihan Folks Arts Center for research and theatrical presentations, and was closely involved with the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company.

She was also a former president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, head of the Asian Composers League, Chairperson of the Philippine Society for Music Education, and was one of the pioneers of the Bayanihan Dance Company. She is credited for having written more than 200 musical compositions, ranging from folksongs to opera to orchestral works, and was composing up to the year before she died, at age 90.

She is particularly known for incorporating indigenous Filipino instruments into orchestral productions.

Death

Lucrecia died on August 16, 2008 in Manila, Philippines.

Honors and awards

• Honorary Doctor of Music from Centro Escolar University, 1975
• Honorary Doctor of Laws from the Philippine Women’s University, 1980
• Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from St. John’s University in New York, 1981
• National Artist of the Philippines, 1989

Further reading

• Tariman, Pablo; Plaza, Gerry (2008-08-17). "Lucrecia Kasilag, grand dame of RP music, dies at 90". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
• "National Artist for Music Lucrecia Kasilag, 90". ABS-CBN News Online. 2008-08-18. Retrieved 2008-08-25. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)