It's a second lease on life for me and I'm thanking God for it. I'm really fortunate in that the blockages (5) were discovered before any heart attack could occur.

I was in the Operating Room for 7 hours on June 22, in the Recovery Room for 24, in the ICU for another 24 and then 4 days in a private room. (I was taking a shower on my own the last 3 days.) They started me walking when I was still at the ICU. I was released at 4:00pm yesterday with no dressing on any of my wounds.

My wife and I will leave for Tagaytay after lunch and will stay there for about a week. Unfortunately, I do not have Internet access there. But I just want you to know that everything went well and my recovery has been nothing but remarkable.

I hope to be at Monk's on Friday night, July 8. :<) It's some kind of a re-launch. I don't have the details, but Sandra would know. I hope to see you guys there.

Thank you all!

Gus

On behalf of Jazzphil, we wish you a speedy recovery in Tagaytay, Cavite. See you on the 8th of July.

Sincerely yours, The Members of the Jazz Society of the Philippines
 

British Council Philippines Announces
Summer Music Workshop by Guildhall jazz head

From April 24-May 22, instrumentalists aged 15-21 will take part in an intensive summer music camp at the Samba-Likhaan premises in Quezon City.  Training will involve flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, baritone euphonium, and percussion. Instructions are individual, in small groups of different combinations, and full band.

To supplement the camp activities, British Council Philippines has invited Scott Stroman, jazz department head at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London to conduct special sessions from May 3-7 as part of the continuing music education link established by GSMD’s Matthew Barley, Sean Gregory, Katja Mervola, and Nathan Thomson in previous years.

Stroman is a uniquely broad musician, active in jazz, classical, and world music. He is a jazz trombonist, a conductor of orchestras and choirs, a noted composer, and a renowned and popular educator. Born in Kendallville, Indiana, USA, in 1958, he was educated at Northern Illinois University where he received his BM with honors in 1980 and the University of Miami where he received his MM in 1982.

As a trombonist, he has performed with Billy Cobham, David Liebman, Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Brecker, Kenny Wheeler, and others. He plays with and directs the London Jazz Orchestra (including such players as Stan Sulzmann, Paul Clarvis, and Henry Lowther), and co-leads two groups: the Wellins/Stroman Quintet with British saxophonist Bobby Wellins and the international group North by NorthWest with Billy Cobham and Swedish saxophonist Cennet Jansson. He has produced recordings with the London Jazz Orchestra, Stroman-Jansson Project, Eclectic Voices, Guildhall Jazz Band with Kenny Wheeler and gospel musician L. D. Frazier and is Music Director/Arranger for Billy Cobham's Conundrum project.

As a conductor, he is Director of the OPUS 20 String Ensemble, Britain's leading performers of 20th century music for strings. With them he has premiered dozens of works, performed throughout Britain and in North and South America, broadcasted regularly on the BBC, and produced the CD Hidden Streams on DGM Records. He works with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Western Sinfonia, where he has been Music director since 1990. He is also Director of Eclectic Voices, whose recording of Stroman's song-cycle Songs of the Spirit was launched at the 1999 London Jazz Festival where it was premiered in 1997. His specialist repertoire includes Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, the Second Viennese School and Stravinsky in addition to music of the later 20th Century and jazz.

As a composer, he has written numerous works for orchestra, choir, jazz orchestra, jazz ensembles, songs, and music for children. He has won awards from the BBC, Musicians' Union, and Downbeat Magazine, and has had numerous radio and television broadcasts.

As an educator, he has been a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, UK, since 1983 and is Head of their Jazz Course, renowned as one of the leading in Europe. He has won the BBC Big Band Contest five times and made four albums as director of the Guildhall Jazz Band, and teaches jazz composition and performance. He has led hundreds of courses and workshops in improvisation, performance, singing, world music, and conducting throughout the UK and Europe for education authorities, schools, colleges, universities, Arts Councils, choirs, and orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He was Music Director for the Globe Music Exchange and Director of the African and Gospel Music Workshop at the Dartington International Summer School. His work has been featured on radio and television.

He often combines his roles as a conductor, performer, presenter and educator to create unique programmes, crossing boundaries between styles and cultures and between performance, composition, improvisation,education, and entertainment.

Members of the Philippine Youth Symphonic Band will be joined by string players from Cebu’s Peace Philharmonic Philippines in preparing for a special Mother’s Day concert at the Shangri-La Plaza Mallâs Grand Atrium on May 8, with Scott Stroman conducting.

For enquiries, please call Beth Puyot at Samba-Likhaan
722-5554 or 722-8575

  


BRITISH COUNCIL
YOUTH ORCHESTRA

PROJECT NOTES

Culture is not a luxury – it is how we live.   The arts, in turn, are for everybody, regardless of age, race, creed, or ability. Today, just as the call for globalisation has brought about increased anxieties for the basic necessities of life, arts and cultural activities should be innovative and exciting mechanisms for social, cultural and economic development.

This is an area where the British Council has chosen to play an increasingly significant role, believing as we do that creating dynamic partnerships through the arts can contribute to progressive change in society.  Through our different programmes, we want to encourage tradition, modernity, and diversity to flourish side by side.   We want to help instill self-confidence and pride in one’s community, and to allow the voices of those who have been silent or discounted, to be heard.

The events of September 11 brought about an even greater call for connecting people and connecting futures.  Cellist Matthew Barley’s offer to visit to the Philippines twice on a music education programme gave us the opportunity to apply connectivity through music. Not only was he excited about working with Filipino youths, but also about making music within the framework of community development, and most of all, with breaking the stereotypical mode of the classical musician by working with indigenous artists whose works have enriched the tapestry of Philippine culture.

Since then, we have implemented an expanded music education project with Matthew’s colleagues at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, who, in the past three years, have been working zealously with young musicians aged 15-23 from Cebu, Zambales, Los Banos, and the lakeshore towns of Rizal.  Apart from improving their technical prowess, the young prodigies were allowed to break loose and hone improvisation, composition, and performance skills.

This year, we celebrate the success of our own “creative factory” through a sterling merger of Peace Philharmonic Philippines and the Philippine Youth Symphonic Band, who will converge for an intensive week-long programme to be conducted by Guildhall’s jazz department head, Scott Stroman, under the aegis of the National Youth Music Camp organised annually by Dr Francisco Feliciano of the Samba-Likhaan Foundation at the Asian Institute of Liturgical Music premises in Quezon City.

With the support of WG&A, No Curfew and the UK watch brand Storm, this extremely talented youth orchestra makes its debut as the British Council marks its 25^{th anniversary by “coming home” to the Shangri-La Plaza Mall for a concert on Mother’s Day, May 8, at 3:00 p.m.}