By: Rhobie Ruaya
The Silliman University (SU) Cultural Affairs Committee and the College of Performing and Visual Arts (COPVA) brought “Meditation,” a violin concert featuring Rio Miyanaga, last Nov. 28 at the Luce Auditorium.
Miyanaga, 24, started playing the violin at the age of four. Through the years, she has had several musical engagements and became a freelance violinist after she graduated as a violin major at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo.
Miyanaga arrived last August in SU from Yokohama City, Japan. She now teaches violin at COPVA while she works with concert orchestras, musicals, operas. She also gives private violin lessons.
Moreover, Miyanaga is a member of the Music Unites the World Orchestra, a group that gives free concerts and music workshops to children in the Philippines.
Miyanaga said that she continues to play music and the violin “to express.”
“Through music and playing the violin, I can encourage and make other people happy,” Miyanaga said.
Diomar Abrio, chair of the Cultural Affairs Committee and Cultural officer, said that the Loboc Children’s Choir declined their invitation for them to perform in SU, so for a span of two weeks, the concert of Miyanaga only had a short period of preparation.
“The university is very lucky to have Ms. Miyanaga,” Abrio added.
The concert included different concert pieces and Original Pinoy Music compositions, including “Czardas” by Vittorio Monti and “Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal” by Ernani Cuenco.
The concert also included a Japanese song titled “Hana Wa Saku” (Flowers Will Bloom) by Yoko Kanno. It was composed for the victims of the tsunami that hit Japan last March 2011.
Towards the end of show, Miyanaga shared to the audience that her favorite song in the show was Jounetsu Tairiku by Taro Hakase, a piece made as a theme song for a television program in Japan.
Isabel Dimaya-Vista (Piano), SU Orchestra Sin Arco with director Mathilda Limbaga Erojo, Henrix Paul Tubil (Guitar), and Sher Ann Ablay (Octavina) from COPVA assisted in the concert.
The event was also co-presented by Philippine Airlines and Coco Grande Hotel.
