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By Johanna M.
Sampan
While many
Filipino musicians can skillfully play the flute, trombone,
saxophone, trumpet, oboe, horn, clarinet and even the harmonica,
these proponents of wind instruments should also take time to learn
about the Philippines’ homegrown, and highly unique contribution
to this class: the bamboo organ.
The only one
in the world, it took years to build this unique instrument. History
has it that from 1816 to 1824, Fr. Diego Cera, the first parish
priest in Las Piñas, collected pipes as he built his grand design.
Sadly, in 1880, a typhoon and an earthquake destroyed the church’s
roof, ruining the organ case with fallen stones and water. No one
could play the bamboo organ after the calamity until a man by the
name of Johannes Klais Orgalbau shipped it to Bonn, Germany, in 1973
for cleaning, tuning and restoration. It took another two years to
finish the restoration, and in March 1975 the bamboo organ was
shipped back to its true home, and has since, never stopped to make
beautiful music.
On November
24, 2003, the National Museum of the Philippines officially declared
the Las Piñas Bamboo Organ as a National Cultural Treasure, it
being the only 19th-century bamboo organ in the Philippines that is
still working.
Today, seeing
to the continued maintenance and restoration of the bamboo organ is
the major priority of the Bamboo Organ Foundation Inc. The
foundation is a nonstock, nonprofit organization established to
preserve the historic bamboo organ via fundraisers, the biggest of
which is the annual International Bamboo Organ Festival.
Now on its
32nd year, the International Bamboo Organ Festival will be held from
February 22 to March 1 at the Saint Joseph’s Church of Las Piñas
City.
“For this
year, I’ve arranged church songs that we don’t usually hear,”
artistic director, Della G. Besa says about the program. “Aside
from Baroque music there will also be nontraditional pieces that
will be played and sung during the festival. We’ve really worked
hard to come up with a beautiful line up that Filipinos and
foreigners would enjoy,” she assures.
Noted artists
like Rico J. Puno, organist Armando Salarza, soprano Camille L.
Molina, guitarists Sixto Roxas and Ruben Reyes, Las Piñas Boys
choir, Festival Orchestra and conductor Jonathan Velasco will
perform for the event.
Msgr. Albert
Venus, president of the Bamboo Organ Foundation Inc., notes, “We
want the Filipinos especially the young people to be aware of this
priceless treasure that we have in our country. It’s happy yet
alarming to see that foreigners are fonder of watching the
performance nights. I hope our own countrymen will take their time
to see the event for them to appreciate the magnificent bamboo
organ.” 
For ticket
reservations and inquiries, call the Las Piñas Church at 826-7718
or SM TicketNet at 911-4087.
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