Side by Side - A Piano Duet Concert in Davao City

 (Daphne C. Jocson)

(Mary Anne Espina)

It was (again!) an enchanting evening. Hundreds of classical music lovers (including me!) experienced a wonderful concert with the two concert pianist ladies Daphne C. Jocson (member of the quintet "The Five Davao Lady Pianists and very good friend of mine!) and Mary Anne Espina.

Daphne Cabaguio Jocson is a dynamic collaborating artist in local and foreign classical music circles. She performs with professional artists in Manila, Davao City and the United States. She is indeed an advocate of honing promising young artists in the country thus, takes precedence in collaborating with young and upcoming musicians.

Daphne was a featured soloist of the Manila Symphony Orchestra then known as the Manila Youth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Professor Basilio Manalo and Professor Arturo Molina where she performed the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor and the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor - both my favourite piano concertos as well.

Recently Daphne was engaged as pianist/repititeur for several productions, among others, Dulaang U.P.'s "Noli Me Tangere" and Ryan Cayabyab's musical "Ageless Passion". 

A 2007 Aliw Awardee for the Best Instrumentalist category, Mary Anne Espina has been featured in the Filipino Artists Series at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In 2010, she was presented by the GSIS Museo ng Sining in cooperation woth the embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany  in a solo concert in celebration of Robert Schumann's 200th birthyear. In 2011, Mary Anne collaborated with pianist Jonathan Coo in an all Liszt repertoire , as a tribute to Franz Liszt's 200th birthyear. 

Known for her excellence in chamber music, Mary Anne is one of the most sought after collaborating artists in the Philippines today.

The classical music evening in the Apo View Hotel brought us compositions from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gabriel Faure (one of the greatest french composers of the 19th century), Johannes Brahms (with one of my favourite Hungarian Dances, the No. 5), Johann Sebastian Bach, Fritz Kreisler  (an Austrian born violinist and composer), and Agot Espino (born 1957), Philippine pianist, pedagogue and christian songwriter.

Thank you so very much Daphne and Mary Anne for a wonderful evening with classical music.