IN celebration of National Women’s Month, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra performs under the baton of Dr. Beverly Shangkuan-Cheng on March 17, 2023, Friday, 8pm, at the CCP @ The Metropolitan Theater.
The seventh installment of the 38th concert season, the program features pieces by female composers such as Marie Jocelyn Marfil’s Pyagsawitan “Wedding and Harvest,” National Artist for Music Lucrecia R. Kasilag’s “Festival” from Philippines Scenes, and Denise Santos’s The Light of Extreme Darkness.
The PPO will also play Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music, accompanied by a 16-voice choir, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony Number 7 in A Major, Op. 92.
Guest conductor Dr. Shangkuan-Cheng is the incumbent president of the Philippine Choral Directors Association, and the artistic director of the Las Piñas International Bamboo Organ Festival. She is an associate professor at the University of the Philippines College of Music, teaching conducting for both graduate and undergraduate music students. She is currently the Philippine representative to the Asia Pacific Choral Council and the Asia Choral Association.
Shangkuan-Cheng has a degree in music from the University of the Philippines, a master’s from the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and a doctorate degree in musical arts from the University of Michigan. Conductor Shangkuan-Cheng has performed with various international orchestras in South Africa, Germany, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Spain, Vietnam, Portugal, and Singapore.
She has gained numerous awards including the Phyllis Curtin Career Entry Award from the Yale School of Music, the Margot Fassler Award and the Hugh Giles Prize from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music for her conducting, first prize at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Graduate Conducting Competition. She participated as a fellow at the Levi Barbour Fellowship from the University of Michigan.
Tickets for the concert are priced at Php1,500, Php1,200, Php800, and Php500. For tickets and inquiries, call the CCP Box Office 8832-3704 or email customercare@culturalcenter.gov.ph. Visit the CCP website (www.culturalcenter.gov.ph). Follow the official CCP social media accounts in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok for latest updates.
