All systems go for Musikahan 2012 in Tagum City
By City Information Office-Tagum
All is set for the grand kick-off of the 11th installment of the Musikahan sa Tagum Festival, transforming this city who prides itself as the “Music Capital of the South” to a majestic musical venue with the participation of thousands of musical revelers from the different parts of the country and from the Asia Pacific.
Considered to be Davao Region’s opening festival salvo, the said festival runs from February 21-26, 2012 and will feature the region’s best solo players and musical ensembles such as marching brass bands, choral groups, rondalla artists, drum-and-bugle-lyre corps players, young musicians specializing wind, percussion and string instruments, among others.
The City Government of Tagum and the City of Tagum Tourism Council assured this year’s Musikahan will be grander and a must-see, following a decade of successful annual staging.
This year’s Musikahan banners the theme “Harvest of Creativity, Celebrating Global Harmony.”
New Flavors
Guesting during Thursday’s Kapihan sa Kapitolyo sponsored by the Davao del Norte Provincial Office, Festival Artistic Director Nestor Horfilla said the events in this year’s festival were “reinvented, reinvigorated and reintroduced” as to elicit excitement among tourists and from the Tagumeños as well.
Adding spice to the six-day event is the holding of the Musikahan @ I.T. which shall explore the multi-faceted usage of information technology and the new media in creative industry and knowledge production. This will be participated by IT educators and students from different learning institutions which shall compete in producing creative outputs promoting Tagum through websites, e-marketing application software disseminated through cellular phones and production of ringtones.
Tourists and local folks who don’t have enough time to attend to all events during the festival need not worry as an online live streaming shall be available on the internet, considered to be the biggest innovation of the festival this year, organizers said.
The city’s New City Hall — the main venue of the festival — is boosting its wireless capability with the installment of two wi-fi zones with a T1 line which provides extremely fast internet connection that will ensure the event’s I.T. component.
Main Events
Highlighting the Musikahan are the following: Himig Handog Choral Competition, Rondal-Awit Rondalla and Solo Singing Competition and Festival and Avenida Musika Marching Brass Band Competition. Pasiklaban sa Musikahan Battle of the Band Competition and the Huni ug Kasikas sa Dalan Drum, Lyre and Bugle Competition shall also add tone and color to the revelries.
The Best of Musikahan sa Barangay Talents featuring local talents in the barangays here will also be staged along with series of Filipino Contemporary Music Artists Concerts, celebratory concerts and outreach performances in hospitals, malls and other social institutions.
A photography contest which is a first in the history of Musikahan will also kic-off this year as organized by the City Information Office.
Since its launching in 2001, Musikahan gathers the country’s best musical performers and the participation has grown tremendously through the years, generating participation not just from Mindanao-based contingents but also from Luzon and Visayas.
Some of the participants this year hail from Bulacan, Quezon City, Cebu, Davao City, Bacolod, Butuan, South Cotabato, Panabo City, Quezon Province, Bukidnon, North Cotabato, Compostela Valley, Metro Manila and the many musical groups in Tagum.
These groups shall compete for musical supremacy, with an accumulated cash prizes amounting to the tune of PHP 1.054 million (USD 0.025 million) allotted by the city government.
Going International
Exactly a year after Tagum’s successful hosting of the 3rd International Rondalla Festival, this city is again excited to embrace foreign music as musical artists from different parts of Asia conquer the city’s musical stage.
Set to perform during the opening ceremony’s celebratory concert will be Korean Soprano Eun Ha Choi, Kulintang Player Syman Adare of Indonesia and Sheryl Dalawer of Bali. Joining them are young virtuoso artists Gabriel Allan Paguiran, Jimmy Tagala and Myramae Meneses.
Uy shared that next year, an Asia-Pacific Choral Competition shall be added as a component of the festival, with the latest admission of the city to the UNESCO-organized International Music Council which is the world’s largest network of organizations, institutions and individuals working in the field of music.
Two of the members of the panel of judges this year come from IMC, Uy shared.
Foundation sought
The Musikahan sa Tagum Festival is mandated under City Ordinance No. 237 which declares this as the official city festival. But organizers believe much need to be done.
In its ardent desire to further institutionalize the festival, the City of Tagum Tourism Council will hold the Assembly of Partners on February 26, 2012 before the opening ceremony at the New City Hall which seeks to cement the partnership between the organizers and its supporters from the private and public sectors.
Uy said this event was designed as an assembly of partners, with the end view of concretizing the membership, clarifying the programs and refining the organizational structure of the would-be organized Musikahan sa Tagum Foundation.
It also aims to expand the festival’s network of partners and volunteer members which shall sustain the holding of the Musikan sa Tagum Festival in the years to come.
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