From October 3 to 7, 11 students from the Voice Department of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Music were given a master class in voice and solo singing by Univ. Prof. Mario Antonio Diaz-Varas, professor for solo voice at Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and international relations coordinator for the ASEAN European Academic University Network (ASEA-UNINET), of which UP is a member.
The master class culminated in a concert performance by Prof. Diaz’s students on the evening of October 7 at the UP Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (IESM) auditorium, with leading international pianist Ms. Tomoko Aikawa as accompanying artist. Officials from the UP System, the UP College of Music, the UP College of Science, and the IESM, as well as the friends and families of the student participants, attended the concert.
In her opening remarks during the concert performance, UP Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs and UP System Office of International Linkages Director Imee Su Martinez thanked Prof. Diaz and Ms. Aikawa for visiting the Philippines and sharing their expertise with UP’s voice students. According to Martinez, Prof. Diaz was intrigued by Filipino singers’ skill and vocal knowledge and came to UP to find out the secret of Filipino singing at the very source. ”
“As Prof. Diaz repeatedly said in his master class, the secret of Filipino singing perhaps is in the food. While our food may have made a difference in our vocal talents, in my opinion, the skills and talents of our students are honed and shaped by our wonderful and very dedicated faculty of the College of Music,” Martinez said.
Diaz, a world-renowned tenor, echoed Martinez during his remarks, stating that throughout all his travels and exchanges in the ASEAN continent, “the most beautiful color of voices I hear is in UP.” He praised the student participants as “very, very intelligent” and expressed how “very, very happy” he was to work with them.
He also thanked the UP College of Music for hosting his voice master class and described the College and UP as “a healthy university.” “I like when professors have different opinions. So long it’s like that, the University is alive because of the discussion, disputation, and argumentation to defend your thesis,” he said.
Finally, he counseled the student participants that “sometimes an artist should take critique and do the critique because my philosophy about critique on the stage is that protection is good, but overprotection is destructive.”
The 11 student-participants who performed songs by classical composers, arias from operas, and a Filipino kundiman during the concert were: Ms. Maria Isabel Zavala; Mr. Jedidiah Petuta; Ms. Daniella Silab; Ms. Lis Fortun; Mr. Ben Girard Valdez; Mr. Aadric Jan Cayanan; Ms. Ma. Francesca Louise Mata; Mr. Mart Nicholson Jaluag; Ms. Margarita Lugue; Ms. Lhareen Lazo; and, Mr. Archibald Dalupang.
In his closing remarks, UP College of Music Dean La Verne C. Dela Peña thanked Prof. Diaz and Ms. Aikawa and especially thanked the student participants for giving the audience “a wonderful way to end a very special way for us at the College of Music.” He said that the voice master class is the “first time our students came back to celebrate our college fair to mark our 106th anniversary”—and the first time for many music students to set foot inside the University, let alone the College.
“Two years of the pandemic has devasted our music community, especially our singers, who have been denied performance venues because of the nature of their art, so Maestro Diaz’s coming this week has allowed them to find their voice again,” he finished.
Diaz began his musical career at an early age, studying concert guitar as a young student at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, followed by singing studies at the Stockholm University College of Opera with Maestro Nicolai Gedda. After completing his opera studies at Stockholm University College of Opera, he had his first engagement at the Royal Dramatical Theatre, where he demonstrated his acting talent under the direction of Ingmar Bergman. He worked with well-known conductors such as Carlo Franci, Bruno Rigacci, Sixten Ehrling, and Siegfried Koehler.
He has been a professor at the Mozarteum University since October 2009 and accompanies young talents on their way into the opera world. Diaz has worked as a singing professor in the summer academy several times and is in great demand internationally for master classes. In 2018, he received the “Honorary Professor of the Kemerovo State University of Culture” of the Russian Federation. Until 2019 he worked in the senate of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg as curia spokesman for the professors.
