Poetry and music will take center stage at this year’s  Maningning Miclat Awards on Sept. 25 at the Abelardo Hall of the College of Music of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, QC.

During the benefit concert,  “Ningning ng Tula at Musika,”  winners of the 2013 Maningning  Trilingual Poetry Competition will be awarded. The concert  commemorates  Andres Bonifacio’s birth sesquicentennial.

Songs like the anthem “Bayan Ko” and “Sa Lupang Pangako” (from “Noli Me Tangere”) as well as songs from  Claude-Michelle Schonberg’s “Les  Miserables” such as   “I Dreamed a Dream,” “Bring Him Home” and “A Little Fall of Rain” will be sung by soprano Banaue Miclat and tenor Dondi Ong, to the accompaniment of pianist Mary Anne Espina. Espina herself will render a  Chinese musical piece on piano.

The classical singers will also render opera arias such as “La Canzone di Doretta/Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” from Puccini’s “La Rondine,” “Libiamo ne’ liete calici” from Verdi’s La Traviata and “La Donna e Mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Banaue  is an  opera singer, actress and dancer. She teaches at the Ateneo de Manila University and is  the executive director of Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (Aliww).  She holds a Master of Fine Arts  in Acting from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Brooklyn College; and Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts from the UP Diliman.

She  had vocal training under  CUNY’s Judylee Vivier,  Robert A. Carpenter and  Evelyn Mandac.

She will  perform as the Duchess of Malfi  in Dulaang UP’s play of the same title, starting Sept. 11.

Ong was the only Filipino tenor to have joined the international touring cast of “The Phantom of the Opera”  for Manila and other cities in Asia. He had  joined the South Korean run of “Phantom” and is  now in the Singapore leg of the  Andrew Lloyd Webber  musical  with the pianist  Espina.

Ong trained at the UP College of Music and graduated  magna cum laude and as the class valedictorian.

Known for her excellence in both chamber and opera music,  Espina is one of the most sought-after collaborating artists in the country today. From 1993 to the present, she has maintained an exceptionally hectic musical career.

Espina earned her Master of Arts in Music, summa cum laude, from the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of renowned Filipino pianists Manuel Maramba, OSB, and Raul Sunico, dean of the UST Conservatory. She  finished her undergraduate studies at the St. Scholastica’s College of  Music. She is with the faculty of the UST Conservatory of Music.

Poetry awards finalists

Grand winners of the Maningning Poetry Award in Filipino, English and Chinese  will receive P28,000  cash prize each;  a Julie Lluch trophy;  and special hard-bound edition of Miclat books published by Anvil—Maningning’s “Voice from the Underworld,” the Miclat family’s “Beyond the Great Wall,” a National Book awardee for biography,  and Mario I Miclat’s “Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions,” long-listed at Man Asian Literary Prize.

Finalists in  English poetry are Nolin Adrian de Pedro,  Gian Paolo Lao  and Miro Capili.

Finalists in Filipino poetry are  Phillip Yerro Kimpo Jr, Jason Tabinas and Paul Alcoseba Castillo.

The Chinese poetry winner,  Chen Xiao Yan from Shantou City, Guangdong province, has been  invited to come to Manila to receive her prize.

Maningning Foundation

Founded in 2001, the Maningning Foundation has been organizing activities aimed at encouraging creativity and recognizing, awarding and nurturing outstanding and talented young poets and artists 28 years old and below, the same age when Maningning Miclat passed away.

During odd-numbered years, poetry competition in Filipino, English and Chinese is held. During even-numbered years, it is a painting contest.

The young Miclat excelled in these two art forms, literature and visual art.

As founding member of the board of trustees of the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation, retired Ateneo professor and founding executive director of Aliww, Edna Zapanta Manlapaz says:

“Young talents are like young plants. Children of earth, they shoot up from the ground, to reach for the sun and drink in the rain. Blessed with both, these tender young plants grow into strong saplings. In time they stand tall on the hills, trees that mark our horizon. The Maningning Miclat Art Foundation (MMAFI) commits itself to the nurturing of these young artists.”

The poetry awards and concert is supported by Aliww, UP KAL, Emerson Network Power, World News and Huatong Xinli Flooring Co. Ltd. For tickets (P500), call 8167490 to 91, 4266001 loc 5561. Call or text 0917-8478489 or 0918-9057311. E-mail [email protected]. Visit www.maningning.com.

The author is the executive director of MMAFI and senior vice president of Data Center Design Corporation. E-mail her at [email protected].