A Little Night Music

Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda and Stores Specialists Inc’s resident and CEO Anton Huang mounted a special concert last March 19 at the Metropolitan Theater.

The concert featured the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) under the baton of its music director and principal conductor, Maestro Grzegorz Nowak. Cecile Licad, the renowned Filipina piano virtuoso, headlined the concert, which celebrated National Women’s Month.

The concert was the brainchild of the late Zenaida “Nedy” Tantoco, a dear friend of Legarda. Licad, after playing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23, treated the enthusiastic audience to three encore performances dedicated to the Metropolitan Theater and Tantoco.

“I couldn’t help but feel emotional during the concert. I could only think of Tita Nedy and her legacy,” Licad says. “But when I saw Anton Huang in the theatre, I finally felt like I had found a kindred spirit who was also mourning the loss of Tita Nedy. I had been dealing with the pain on my own while I was abroad. I know that her contribution to the Philippine art and culture scene is now in good hands with her son,” she adds.