Hitting the High Notes in ‘A Symphony of A Thousand’

And so it was, as Jose Antonio Abreu envisioned music to be, when El Sistema’s prodigy and internationally acclaimed LA Philharmonic Conductor Gustavo Dudamel led the 800 Los Angeles-based chorale group singers. Together with our very own Anthony Angelo (Gelo) Francisco, artistic director and founder of Philippine Chamber Singers-LA (PCS), his PCS group of Filipino-Americans (with 300+ musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Simon Bolivar Orchestra) in accompaniment, performed Gustav Mahler’s Part I: Veni creator spiritus (Come Creator Spirit) and Part II: Final Scene from Goethes’ Faust, on Feb. 4 at the Shrine Auditorium.

The Philippine Chamber Singers (PCS-LA) gave an exclusive group interview with Asian Journal the next evening after their performance. Joining this writer, were: Anthony Angelo Francisco, Marivic Francisco and son, Joyce Talampas, Lorien Dador, Judith Guerrero, Apple Nazareno, Louie and Lisa Ulanday, Dino Padallan and Marikit Buhion.

When Gustavo Dudamel coached the musicians, he did it with reverence: “Whatever accent in German you are using, whether you are Asian, Latino, Black or American, it is perfect German,” motivating PCS-LA to give more and to learn their solo parts with due diligence.  PCS-LA shared that “when Gustavo is let down, he does not say it, but simply says, ‘More, more…almost perfect,’ so you keep giving more, without feeling tired. Even if we felt tired, we felt we needed to give more. As we kept watching Gustavo lean into the microphone, a cue that he is tired, massaging his own shoulders, yet not a word of complaint to us, and when he is about to conduct, he gives it his all.