Holding their violins and bows, Alessio Benvenuti and Sara Gonzales walked to the “stage” cordoned off by retractable belt barriers. Within minutes they were playing Antonio Molina’s “Hating Gabi,” weaving a blanket of serenity over those present. 

They segued to Niccolò Paganini’s “Violin Duo,” a piece said to be not the composer’s best-known piece but his most highly technical. The virtuosos that they are, Benvenuti and Gonzales made child’s play of the technical demands of rapid runs, wide leaps, and pizzicato.

Their final piece, Gregorio Labja’s “Usahay,” evoked a quiet remembrance of someone beloved. “Usahay” (Sometimes) was composed by Labja for his wife Noemi, whom he couldn’t forget after their first meeting, per mindanews.com. (Google says the version popularized by the late Pilita Corrales has a sad ending—a melancholy acceptance of unrequited love—compared to Labja’s original version that conveys “enduring love during a courtship.”)

Benvenuti and Gonzales’ brief performance at Joel’s Place in The Proscenium last Sept. 30 was a prelude to the full-length “Filipino-Italian Chamber Music Concert” scheduled on Oct. 16 starting at 7 p.m. at the Asia Pacific College Auditorium in Makati. The concert is organized by the Philippine-Italian Association in collaboration with the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO) and sponsorships by Joel’s Place and 98.7 DZFE-FM The Master’s Touch.

Musical roots

Alessio Benvenuti comes from a musical family. Per muvac.com, his father Roberto was an amateur double bass player, and his uncle Fernando was an organist. He began studying piano at the age of three, and violin at four. At six, he was playing Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. He had his first solo violin performance, playing Paganini’s “24 Caprices,” when he was 12. He studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Italy and the Juilliard School of Music and Drama in New York, then pursued his postgraduate diploma in advanced performances at the Royal College of Music in London, mastering violin with Maestro Yuri Zhislin and piano and accompaniment for instruments and singers with Maestro Andrew Ball, and conducting with Maestro Neil Thomson. 

Emails set off Benvenuti in finding his second home. MSO executive director Jeffrey Solares recalled Benvenuti’s email saying that he wanted to come to the Philippines and settle down with his Filipino girlfriend. Benvenuti working with the MSO would have been ideal, except that the differences in the economic realities of musicians in Manila and Europe were stark, Solares pointed out. 

Solares called it serendipity that a colleague from Cebu told him about chancing upon a talented violinist in Siquijor, who turned out to be Benvenuti. Apparently, the Italian had left his career in Europe sometime in 2019 and lived and taught music on the island. But the pandemic forced him to go back to Italy. He returned to the Philippines in 2023, “conducting the orchestra and playing the violin and piano in an all-Mozart concert,” Solares recalled.  

Benvenuti said it was an opportune moment when a vacancy opened up at MSO. “It’s been a year since I became MSO’s concert master,” he said.

The time he spent in Siquijor led Benvenuti to understand why his father, who passed away 13 years ago, was enraptured with the island. Benvenuti, who understands Bisaya more than he does Filipino, said his father was also an amateur journalist who travelled to Southeast Asia often and loved the Philippines, especially Siquijor. 

“Italians are nice, but I realized why my father said that the Filipinos are beautiful,” he said. “What makes me happy isn’t [only] because Filipinos treat me well; it’s also the way I’m appreciated in terms of personality and music. Once, a Grab driver told me he follows me on social media. Italians express their feelings straight, and I am very direct.”

Benvenuti now divides his time between the Philippines and Italy—“I also love my life in Italy,” he quipped—and flies to Manila yearly to play with the MSO.

Musician and teacher 

Sara Gonzales, the MSO’s associate concert master, is a senior faculty member of its Junior Orchestra. She started learning piano in Cebu City, and received a scholarship to study violin and be part of the Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra Development Project of the Salvador and Pilar Sala Foundation Inc.

She won the National Music Competitions for Young Artists as a young violinist. In 2005, she took first prize in the string quartet category as a member of the Quarteto Espressivo and placed third in the solo violin competition category C (college level). Three years later, she clinched first prize in the same solo category.

Gonzales also teaches at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music and the Philippine High School for the Arts. She’s a trained Suzuki violin teacher, who follows the music education principles of the Japanese violinist Dr. Shinichi Sukuzi. (The Suzuki method’s key principles are talent education, parental involvement, early immersion, repetition and ear training, imitation, and positive environment.)

At the Oct. 16 concert, Benvenuti and Gonzales (who will play viola instead of violin) will be joined by Alfonso Encina (violin II), Arnold Josue (cello), Lawrence Palad (bass), and Mariel Ilusorio (piano).

Close ties

Culture, flavors and music came together at Joel’s Place, highlighting the deep connection between the Philippines and Italy. The Philippine-Italian Association, which is celebrating its 63rd year this year, continues to strengthen cultural ties between the two nations through Italian-language instruction, translation services, and social security and welfare assistance via the nonprofit law organization Patronato Acli. 

The concert is also the inaugural project of the association’s new vice president for culture, Tats Rejante-Manahan, who is taking over the helm from Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz. 

PIA director Joanna Altomonte Abrera said a reason for holding the concert is it “bridges the relations with the Philippines and Italy, and Alessio is at the MSO.” She explained that the concert is held in October because the yearly Italian Language Week celebrating Italian culture and language worldwide is marked during this month. 

Masterpieces

For the Oct. 16 concert, Benvenuti and Solares put together the Italian and Filipino repertoires. The Italian pieces include Gioachino Rossini’s “Sonata No. 1 for strings in G Major,” Giuseppe Tartini’s “Sonata in G Minor (Didone Abbandonata),” Ennio Morricone’s film scores “Cinema Paradiso” and “La Califfa,” Luigi Denza’s “Funiculì, Funiculà,” and Claude Debussy’s “Piano Trio 3rd movement.”

Benvenuti clarified that while Debussy was a Frenchman, his piece was included because “he was in Florence when it was written.”

The Filipino segment is composed of Constancio de Guzman’s “Bayan Ko” (arranged by Orlando dela Cruz), Nicanor Abelardo’s “Cavatina,” Mike Velarde’s “Dahil Sa Iyo,” and folksongs such as the Bicolano “Si Nanay, Si Tatay Di Ko Babayaan,” the Ilonggo “Ili, Ili, Tulog Anay,” and the Igorot “Salidumay.”

At the Q&A portion of the conference, it was asked why “Bayan Ko” (the anthem of activist groups) and “Dahil Sa Iyo” (the favorite song of the dictator’s widow Imelda Marcos) were included in the repertoire. 

Solares said there was no political message in the choices, the repertoire having been planned “many weeks ago” before the exposé on the corruption involved in flood control and infrastructure projects. He said “Bayan Ko” and “Dahil Sa Iyo” are both kundiman (love songs), and “they’re beautiful songs.”

Tickets are at ₱1,500. For inquiries and reservations, contact Ms. Jan Dacera at (+63) 995 430 5118 or email [email protected].