NCCA awards Cagayan de Oro composer grant to record classical music works

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) has awarded a Cagayan de Oro composer a grant to record his body of classical music compositions.

The NCCA grantee, acclaimed Kagay-anon classical music composer Niño Cesar Borromeo Tiro, received the support of the Commission through its 2022 Competitive Grants Program after he won an Ani ng Dangal (harvest of honors) for his Phantasie für Ludwig.

The composition was performed by concert pianist Susanne Kessel in Volume 9 of her global composition project 250 Piano Pieces for Beethoven. Tiro’s Phantasie für Ludwig quickly became a crowd favorite during Kessel’s concerts and promotional tours in 2019. 

The Ani ng Dangal is an organizational award given by the NCCA to natural-born Filipino artists who reaped top honors in international events in any of seven art disciplines: architecture and allied arts, cinema, dance, dramatic arts, literary arts, music, and visual arts, including multi-disciplinary arts.

First oeuvre

Tiro parlayed his grant into his project, entitled Niño Tiro: A Compilation of Chamber and Orchestral Works, which was approved in November 2021 by the National Committee on Music (NCMusic) under the Sub-Commission on the Arts (SCA), one of the 19 national committees of the NCCA.

The recording sessions were done at the Sounds Kradle in Quezon City on June 1 and June 2 with the help of its CEO, Reginald Tan, and audio and video recordings by classical specialist Holland Lou Buela.

The musicians who participated in the recordings included Gina Medina Perez (violin), Nenen Espina (soprano), Anjo Inacay (cello), and Mary Anne Espina (piano).

Produced by Tiro, Emil Wright, and Ena Tiro, the team now aims to have a premier presentation by the end of October.

“My project aims to promote and preserve local art forms and cultural expressions through my music,” Tiro said. “It will be an art rendezvous that allows new generations to appreciate the value of original Filipino Classical music to sustain cultural identity and expand knowledge of our musical lineage.”

“I aim to create awareness to help rouse budding composers in the Philippines that through their music, they can express and inspire our society,” he added.

The artist

Maria Austregelina Alfornon, NCM secretary, said the fact that a Kagay-anon won in an international composition competition, among so many entries, “is a testament that he is good [at] what he does.”

Alfornon added, “Unfortunately, not too many people know of this competition, nor have come across Tiro’s works. We, in the committee, always encourage people outside of Manila to be part of NCCA’s competitive grants.” 

A true-blue Kagay-anon, Tiro was born and raised in Cagayan de Oro and started piano lessons when he was five years old.

Among his mentors were the late concert pianists and composer Lino Abrio and Anita Nita Velez Abrogar-Quinto.

Even in school, Tiro was already flexing his musical chops. With high honors, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Music, majoring in Music Education, Piano Principal at Lourdes College. 

He was also a magna cum laude at the Liceo de Cagayan University Conservatory of Music, Theater, and Dance, where he earned another Bachelor’s degree in Music in Composition. At Liceo, he was mentored by world-renowned composer and conductor Professor Horst-Hans Bäcker.

Bäcker called Tiro the best composition student he had in his decades of teaching. 

“I am not surprised by his excellent compositions, and I am very proud of the successes he has already achieved,” he said of his student.

Aside from classical music, Tiro has also indulged in other music genres such as rock, blues, and jazz. He plays electric bass as a professional session player in various local bands, and as the principal double bass player of the Cagayan de Oro Symphony Orchestra.

‘Born at the wrong time’

Tiro described his music as “anachronistic, eccentric, eclectic, and outright melodic.” 

Heralded as a “composer born at the wrong time,” his music has been described as “neo-classical and neo-romantic with a dash of the modern idiom.”

Three of his works – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D Minor, Soundtrack for the Lucid Dreamer, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano – are now part of the eScholarship Contemporary Music Score Collection, which is an open-access publishing platform backed by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

In 2021, he co-wrote the soundtrack of the restored 1911 silent film Pinocchio with Italian violinist Tullio Vidmar.

‘Composer par excellence’

His works were accepted for publication in 2022 by music publisher Universal Edition (UE) which has a catalog encompassing over 30,000 items, ranging from the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, post-war modern music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, and Pierre Boulez, and contemporary music of Wolfgang Rihm, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Friedrich Cerha.

Tiro currently teaches Piano/Composition Music at the Liceo Conservatory, where he also serves as the academic chair.

“Niño is not just a composer par excellence but a well-respected, team-player and professional colleague,” said baritone Cipriano “Zip” de Guzman, Tiro’s multi-awarded colleague at the Conservatory.

“He is generous in sharing his artistry with his students, as well as his ideas with his colleagues. His selflessness makes him a good team player and academic chairman,” said De Guzman. – Rappler.com