With Cecile, Lisa in weekend shows

It’s Tuesday morning and over the past few days I’ve been running my brother’s medley demos on my music player whenever I can. Our first rehearsal for “The Legends and the Classics” is tomorrow. I know we’ll only be in practice mode; still I want to show up prepared.

The concert is this Saturday and Sunday. I’ve met Cecile Licad and Lisa Macuja, spent significant amounts of time with them, mostly laughing. The atmosphere has been relaxed thus far; no one has unfurled a music sheet, lyric sheet or choreography layout. At least, not with each other. Our interactions have largely been social.

I know the monsters (the good kind) will appear, as we each unleash the crazy (also the good kind) on one another, and on the people we’ll work with.

Fingers on fire

It must have been on television that I first witnessed Cecile play. She would have been in her early 20s (she’s turning 51 this year). I could see the intensity in her eyes, gazing alternately at the conductor and on the keyboards. She was wearing something that looked Filipino, and her hair was pulled up in a twist or a bun. I don’t remember the camera focusing on her fingers.

Fast-forward to a couple of years ago, when I finally got the chance to watch her live. Gerard was conducting FILharmoniKA. That’s when I saw how fast her fingers flew, how much fire there was in her playing.

I met her very briefly after that concert, and she expressed an interest in the two of us working together someday. Well, here we are, just days from making that happen, and I couldn’t be more excited.

For all the honors she has won for herself and the country as a classical pianist, it’s her person that I have found most impressive. She may be a lady of few words, probably preferring to let her talent speak for itself (and it does), but when she does say something, you listen. Her words ring of humanity, truth, artistry, musicianship and humor, of how less-than-perfect can make a performance more perfect. She has also mastered the art of unleashing the perfectly timed expletive to make a point.

I don’t remember when I first met Lisa, perhaps when she watched a past concert of mine, and she brought her two children Missy and Mac backstage.

I’ve seen her perform only on TV and YouTube, and I just did an Art2Art interview with her which aired last Sunday. The longest time I’ve spent in the same room with her has been for our photo session and press con, so I got to know her as a human being first, and as a dancer second. Which is fortunate for me.

In how she speaks of her training, her mentors, her ballet company, her children, her husband, her family … of the arctic cold in Russia and dancing on scarred, cut-up feet… of a steroid shot just to be able to perform for the fans that have been waiting to see her… of an experimental surgery on one foot to hopefully guarantee a few more years on her feet dancing… and of the discipline it takes to maintain her ridiculously amazing body (I kid you not… it is such a thing of beauty that I kept shouting to her at the photo shoot, “You’re so annoying!”)—I could see such a high degree of passion, drive, love and commitment for this most exacting art form.

Just the same

I feel like the slacker among the three of us. I don’t spend eight hours a day practicing (except when working on a musical), or do a full class before a performance. Maybe it’s because my art form depends upon these two little tiny vocal chords. That said, I do get obsessed and driven when it’s time to learn something new, or try to get my voice to sing a little higher. My only driving thought throughout the day then becomes this one song, finding the right way to sing it, figuring out how and when to breathe in order to get that note just right, and releasing whatever iota of fear there might still be left in me. And then feeling satisfaction when I unleash it at a show, knowing I devoted a good chunk of time to it.

We are three very distinct personalities (I think I’m the most talkative, Lisa is the most poised, and Cecile the most reserved) practicing three very different art forms. But we’re all passionate about what we do, and devote what can seem like an inordinate amount of time to our disciplines. We are all surrounded by extremely supportive families, and are grateful for their presence. We all want for more years doing what it is we love, and hope that we’ve made the country proud.

The Legends and The Classics. March 17 (8 p.m.) and March 18 (6 p.m.) at the CCP Main Theater. Roxanne Lapus directs. Gerard Salonga is our musical director and conductor. Tickets are available at TicketWorld (www.ticketworld.com.ph) or call 891-9999.