THE Kodály Society of the Philippines and the St. Scholastica’s College-Manila School of Music recently invited six different Filipino choirs to the first-ever Kanta! festival to improve their musicianship, choral repertoire and rehearsal techniques—all within the framework of the Kodály approach to music teaching.
Kanta! featured the De La Salle Santiago-Zobel High School Chorale, Immaculate Conception Academy Chorale, Mandaluyong Children’s Choir, Manila Chamber Singers, University of the Philippines (UP) Manila Chorale and Ateneo Chamber Singers.
The festival hoped to shatter the common belief that Kodály’s philosophy is only applicable to classroom music, but rather helps people to look at the approach as another effective way of improving choral sound.
With the support of the Embassy of Hungary in Manila, the workshop was conducted by Dr. Árpád Tóth from Hungary, a young but experienced choral conductor and music teacher who rethought the Kodály concept for the 21st century. He is the founding artistic director of Hungary’s largest community choir Csíkszerda, which has more than 500 singers and interesting community projects like the Night of Choirs.
Tóth is teaching on a regular basis all around the world, including Australia, China, Mexico, Germany, Italy, South Korea and the United Kingdom, among others, and has delivered several TED talks about his firm belief: Singing connects people with each other.
Not long after the outstanding performances of Hungarian choirs in an international choral festival held in Manila, the Kodály Society of the Philippines was formed in 1985, and took on the responsibility of spreading the Kodály teaching method in the country.
Every year thereafter, the Society has organized national seminars and began inviting foreign lecturers to teach. These were held in various venues, such as in St. Scholastica’s College, Santa Isabel College, UP and the Philippine Women’s University.
The Society has also done outreach workshops and seminars in various parts of the Philippines: Isulan in Sultan Kudarat; Lagawe in Ifugao; Legaspi City in Albay; Silliman University in Dumaguete City; Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental; and also in Zamboanga, Cotabato and parts of the Visayas.
Committed to seeking and nurturing musical talent toward excellence to develop leaders, with the mission to take music to greater community thereby enriching the society, St. Scholastica’s College-Manila envisions to grow competent, creative and compassionate musicians who can provide inspiration and direction to all people toward a lifelong involvement in the art of music. That is why it offered to accommodate the first-ever Kanta! workshop and festival to show the wider audience the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco)-registered Kodály teaching method.
When the Embassy of Hungary reopened in Manila in March 2017, it quickly teamed up with the Kodály Society of the Philippines to commemorate the anniversary of both the birthdate and death of composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist and philosopher Zoltán Kodály (per Wikipedia–Ed.). The Unesco and the government of Hungary dedicated last year as a special anniversary in honor of his memory with concerts, programs and conferences held in Hungary and abroad.
Building on those events as well as to foster the ever-growing interest of the Philippine music schools and audience to the Kodály method, the embassy provided an exhibition about the life of the composer, which was in display at the Kanta! festival.