By Leo Renier| Founder
An idea was born in the parish. I was assigned to the Las Piñas Parish, then still covering Manuyo to Almanza, and arrived there in July 1969, a month after Fr. Mark Lesage, C.I.C.M., had become the parish priest. Without being aware of it, we were going to stay in the same parish for quite some time. Without any doubt, the continuous prosperity of cultural activities such as the yearly festival and the Las Piñas Boys Choir is partially due to the fact that there was a permanency of the leadership over a longer period.
The Second Vatican Council had ushered with a renewal of the liturgy. We made plans early on, to teach our parishioners that Easter is at the center of our Christian faith. This celebration should be different from any other liturgical celebration, by making use of lights, colors and music, to set its liturgy apart from the regular Sunday Mass. In order to prepare the people for the grand Easter celebration, we had the notion to give the audience a foretaste during the Midnight Mass of Christmas. It was then that Fr. Mark, who knew my background, suggested having a choir of boys in white soutanes sing on the stage during the Midnight Mass. And so the idea was born.
Starting a choir of boys was quite a challenge for any young priest, especially one who was not yet familiar with the culture of his newly adopted country. The stakes I set for the boys were a little bit higher than the typical classroom singing. I required punctuality, commitment, attention, discipline, and more. The young boys performed well during rehearsals; however, they still needed to figure out how to achieve this on the first attempt, not after three or four tries, as what is happening during the sessions. What I remember from that first Midnight Mass was that half of the boys were absent for the general rehearsal in the morning, but that everybody was present for the Midnight Mass! In spite of everything, the event was still a real celebration, and by the time it was Easter things went smoother.
“Plus est en vous”.–“You can do better”
It was the late Fr. John Van de Steen, C.I.C.M., conductor of the then famous Manila Cathedral Choir, who told me that one should never underestimate what boys are capable of, and that one should always aim higher.
In 1972, we decided to participate in the First Children’s Choir Competition at the CCP, still carrying the former name “Himig Kawayan Boys Choir”. The pieces we presented were for for equal voices, which was quite an undertaking. The result was satisfying—they got a fair, yet impressive third place. From then on, invitations to perform outside Las Piñas became more frequent, including invitations to perform in Malacañang.
The quick and steady rise of appreciation for the choir prompted me to look for a full-time
choirmaster. Engracio Tempongko, who had been the assistant conductor of Fr. John at the Manila Cathedral in charge of the boys, was at the helm of the choir from 1974 until 1979. It was now called the Las Piñas Boys Choir. During this time, scholarships were introduced, so that boys from the public schools could join the choir as well in order to have all the members in the same campus. One famous beneficiary was Michael “Eagle” Riggs.
The scholarship is to be considered as a token of gratitude to the parents. The boys, on the other hand, got their own reward, which can be in the form of outings or sightseeing while on a concert tour. However, over the years, the boys learned that the greatest reward, over and above the scholarship and the outings, is their great performance.
After performing regularly at the Cultural Center, joining major productions such as the Magic Flute by Mozart, the Requiem by B. Britten, Carmen by Bizet, the Mass by Bernstein, and Noli me Tangere by F. de Leon to name a few, and after spectacularly winning the first prize in the 3rd Children’s Choir Competition in 1994, the boys were ready to perform during the inaugural concerts when the Bamboo Organ returned to Las Piñas a year later.
The Las Piñas Boys Choir and the Festival
Now, it was the yearly Festival which became the venue of the choir, together with the alumni, to perform major choral works. This was quite a challenge with a limited number of boys. Boys change their voices, and one can never be sure whether or not a leading voice would break by the time of the performance. However, these challenges could easily be overcome with enough passion.
Having an opportunity to study and sing Mozart’s Mass in C, his Requiem or Coronation Mass, Bach’s St. John’s Passion, Monteverdi’s Vespers, and the Masses by Haydn, is as enriching as studying and staging Shakespeare. There are only a few places in the country where such opportunities are offered to children, and where parishioners could hear these music pieces, which were especially accompanied by the Bamboo Organ, performed during the High Mass on Sundays.
It was Prof. Salarza who brought the choir to new heights. The precision he displays in playing the keyboard is the same precision he applies when he is making twenty young voices blend together. The result of this dedication and talent was seizing the championship in an international competition of children’s choirs in Graz, Austria.
Did the 50 years of the LPBC create an impact in Las Piñas?
The Las Piñas Boys Choir is like a greenhouse where young plants are nurtured—one hopes that the trees will bear fruit. Because the community of Las Piñas is tasked to take care of the Bamboo Organ, such a greenhouse is needed. By mere accident, some of the boys were given a chance to study abroad, and they returned to take up this task; Armando Salarza as an organist and teacher at the college level, and Cealwyn Tagle as an organ builder and restorer. The intangible results, on the other hand, are what the five hundred or so alumni of the choir will express—gratitude for the years they spent in the choir, and for the things they learned for the rest of their lives.