Canto Alla Vita

Ever since I was a child I'd loved singing. It was on my fourth grade in primary school that auditions for the school choir was held. The qualifying members would be singing in the school's monthly First Friday masses and to other church services that our school would be participating. Most of us in the fourth grade tried out in the auditions but unfortunately, on my first attempt, I wasn't still aware of the proper breathing while singing and adding to that, my perennial stage fright, known since time immemorial, hindered from from being chosen. My audition piece at that time was "Alleluia, Wikain Mo".

I never gave up, come Christmas season and Ms. Joy had me in a special audition. I recall there were only two of us who tried out. This time I sang Jose Mari Chan's "Christmas in our Hearts" which gloriously made me grab home the bacon.

Being a member of the choir gave me access to the church's loft at the back, a place where I really longed to be ever since. Aside from the regular vocalization before the choir practice, we had fun playing around with my classmates. Though I wasn't able to perform the most coveted role of singing the solo of "Papuri Sa Diyos". That part was always given to boys (never to girls, which made me wonder that time). Now it makes me recall the castratis of the early church. Hence at present I don't regret not being chosden to sing that part. Really!

After a few months, Father Von announced that he would be having another audition. This time within the choir members ourselves. We were afraid that Father Von would trim down the list and personally, that I might be laid off. During the audition, he asked us to sing in the loft and with a microphone. My piece for this audition was "Awit ng Paglaya".

Luckily, I was still in... and Father Von disclosed the reason for the urgent audition. The church would be having a fund raising concert. We performed for two days with matching sailor collared costumes and stuffs. Out of the three pieces that we performed I can barely recall two of them: Lea Salonga's "Tagumpay Nating Lahat" and "A Whole New World". Now it makes me think that the one who chose the songs (whoever he or she was) was a big Lea Salonga fan. Anyway, so it was my debut as a group singer/performer.

I really wanted to pursue singing when I entered high school but for some reason I got intimidated with my new school's glee club. Be it with the instructor or the glee club itself I couldn't think of anymore but unfortunately, the highest step I was able to climb at that time was just as a page turner.

Our school then had a homecoming concert. I was part of the production but on a the back of the stage. I was in charge of preparing the introductions for each guests and I was also able to interview celebrities like Ms. Amy Perez and the like. If I am not mistaken, she was the first celebrity that I have ever met face-to-face. Yet, at the backstage, I felt a bit envious of my schoolmates that made it to the stage, especially those who had solo performances.

My singing career-college edition was too umimpressing for my part though there were two instances, as I recall that I was able to sing. One was during theh freshman orientation, where I sang Westlife cuts with some friends. We had "Flying Without Wings" and "Uptown Girl". Perhaps that performance gave us some credit to back us up as we had Christmas carolling the following season. We "serenaded" some of our professors' homes for two nights ("Pasko Na Sinta Ko", is worthwhile mentioning) and of course, we received some fat(?) amount.

I never realized that my corporate life would give me more exposure to singing than those days that I was still in school. One of my batchmates, Michelle, volunteered me to our project's Christmas party. I was paired up with Mr. Arnel Agbay and we interpreted Rachel Alejandro's "Paalam Na"" for our outgoing manager, Ms. Jennie Chug. This I consider, my formal debut as a solo performer.

The following year I was also lined up for the project's Christmas party. This time I performed a duet with Ms. Hannah Pineda. We sang "Cruisin'". During the performance, Hannah had a bit of a sore throat while I forgot most of the line of the song. Yay!

My MS CS gimmicks just made me sing in front of the videoke with my classmates. No special performances worth mentioning though, they were amazed that I could (could really I?) sing Mandarin songs. Now don't ask me what Mandarin songs, OK?

Landing on the land of the rising sun even gave mo more chances to refine my craft (naks!). It was December 2004, and I was part of our church's choir who performed in the annual Christmas Charity Concert. I was also asked to sing in front of the Yamagata City Lion's Club members where I belted Ken Hirai's "Life Is...". I realized Ken Hirai's genre suits my voice quite well so I chose another Ken Hirai song, "思いがかさなるその前に" (Omoi ga Kasanaru Sono Mae ni - Before the Memories Pile Up), as my entry piece in the first singing contest that I participated in. (See picture above.) For the record, the first singing contest I ever joined was in the Japanese language. Unfortunately for me, I didn't bag any major prize but I won many of the audiences encouraging comments. Most of them even approached me to tell me that they knew how difficult to sing my piece but they were surprized that I was able to sing the piece well.

Oh, I almost forgot (actually I'd rather not mention these but anyway) to mention that I have two unreleased albums. The first one was with Joanne recorded during my vacation in Manila last September and the second one was with Janice when we attended the mathematics conference in Sendai City.

Last December 2005, I sang "If We Hold On Together" with Ate Ligaya at the Fil-Jap Association Christmas Party. This Easter Sunday, I am also part of the group that will sing Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" during the Easter Sunday mass.

Let's sing to life then!