TANGLAW: The Philippine Suzuki Youth Orchestra returns to The Manila Cathedral with music, hope, and holiday spirit
More than 70 members of the Philippine Suzuki Youth Orchestra, the youngest just eight years old, will gather in Intramuros on November 21 for an evening of Bach, Holst, and the songs that, for many Filipinos, mean Christmas is near.
On the evening of November 21, somewhere near the back of the orchestra, an eight-year-old percussionist will stand at the mallet instrument, sticks ready, waiting for a cue. Spread out before that child, under the high ceiling of The Manila Cathedral, will be more than 70 other young musicians. Some are barely taller than their music stands. Others are young adults who have spent years in this orchestra and now lead its sections.
Together, as the Philippine Suzuki Youth Orchestra (PSYO), they will perform TANGLAW, a pre-Christmas concert of classical works, Filipino music, and holiday favorites. It falls at the right time of year. The evenings in Manila are starting to cool, parols are glowing in homes and along the streets, and the city is settling into the familiar Christmas mood.
Meaning “beacon” or “guiding light,” tanglaw reflects the concert’s message of faith and hope. Inside PSYO, it also describes how the orchestra works. Teachers work with the ensemble as a whole, and older players often help younger ones from the next chair over, quietly pointing out the correct bowing or a passage that needs rehearsing.
An orchestra that grew up fast
PSYO began in 2019 as a small group of students learning through the Suzuki Method. Seven years later, it has more than 70 members, from grade-schoolers still learning to sit through a full rehearsal to young adults who run sectionals and help tune the orchestra before a performance. This season it added something new: a 21-member wind and brass section.
The setting does some of the storytelling. The Manila Cathedral has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries and remains one of the city’s most familiar landmarks. Inside, the high ceiling and stone walls hold sound in a way most modern halls cannot, making the space well suited to both Bach and Christmas carols.
The concert will be formally opened by Rev. Msgr. Rolando R. dela Cruz, Rector of the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, The Manila Cathedral, and by Dennis N. Marasigan, Vice President and Artistic Director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). The Church and the CCP are two institutions that have opened their doors to generations of young Filipinos, providing spaces where they can share their gifts and grow in confidence. Having both represented at the opening of the evening reflects a shared commitment to nurturing young musicians and supporting the teachers, families, and communities that help them grow.
“Talent and training are only part of what young artists need. They also need opportunities and platforms where they are trusted to stand before an audience, take a risk, and come back stronger the next time,” says Marasigan. “The CCP has always been providing these, and PSYO shows what happens when that trust is given early and often. Some of the musicians on that stage will help shape Filipino culture for decades to come.”
What’s on the program
The first half showcases the range of the orchestra’s bolder sound.
Gustav Holst’s Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, from The Planets, is one of the evening’s highlights. It is loud, quick, and full of color, and the broad, hymn-like tune at its center is one many listeners will recognize even if they can’t name it. Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Op. 40 offers a cooler, more graceful contrast. Grieg wrote it for strings in the style of 18th-century dance suites, and the orchestra will play its first three movements: Praeludium, Sarabande, and Gavotte.
Bach gets two spots on the program. In the Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043, Concertmaster Theodore Julius C. Tan will be joined by Jean Christophe P. Alvarez and Samarra S. Salason Violin I, and by Lemuel Malyck T. Caw, Merielle Jediah T. Manzano, and Waynerythe U. Salcedo on Violin II. In the Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1041, Kayleigh Claire G. So steps forward as soloist.
Several other players also take their turn in the spotlight. Kristen Lauren A. Ng is the soloist in Carl Maria von Weber’s Country Dance, arranged by Amir Award. Napoleon Manus P. Bantilan is featured in Hatinggabi, a Filipino serenade whose title means “midnight.” Jamie Rose C. Ong, who plays the violin and sings soprano, performs Giulio Caccini’s Ave Maria.
After the intermission, the mood turns to Christmas. The orchestra will play Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, a Jose Mari Chan Christmas Medley, Mga Pamaskong Tagalog Medley, Lindsey Stirling’s Celtic Carol adapted by Sean O’Loughlin, and Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival.
Growing up inside the orchestra
PSYO is built on the method of Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki, who believed children could learn music the way they learn their first language: by listening, imitating, repeating, and being encouraged by the adults around them. The approach asks a great deal of teachers, students, and parents alike. This is especially true in the early years, when lessons, listening, and daily practice depend on steady support at home. That shared effort helps explain how very young children grow into the confident, capable players an orchestra like PSYO relies on. Many of its members have, in fact, grown up inside the orchestra itself.
That growth happens within a clear structure. Herrick Ortiz, Music Director and Principal Conductor, and Patrick Anthony Garcia, Resident Conductor, lead the ensemble, while a faculty of teachers works closely with each instrument group. Much of the day-to-day work, though, belongs to the students. Principals and assistant principals help run rehearsals, keep their sections together, and help younger players keep their place in the score. A 15-year-old who calmly helps a 10-year-old through a difficult run, or learns to listen closely to a different instrument, discovers something that one-on-one lessons alone cannot always teach. In an ensemble, young musicians learn to work with one another, understand harmony and balance, and bring their individual sounds together to create something richer, more dynamic, and symphonic.
Left: Sophia Bantilan leads the sectional for Violin III and Viola; Right: Violin I mentored by Adrian Ong
Ortiz, also a cellist in the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, has watched that process unfold across years of rehearsals and many cohorts of young players.
“Some of these musicians first came to us holding a cello almost as big as they were. Now they lead sections, help the younger ones keep their place, and some even come back to teach. That’s the Suzuki belief at work: every child can learn when the people around them keep showing up. With TANGLAW, we want to turn that light outward this Christmas,” he says.
That sense of responsibility often grows alongside musical range. Many members explore more than one instrument, and some take on several roles at once. Jamie Rose C. Ong performs as both a violinist and a soprano. Aleesha Y. Navarro plays cello and harp. Mary Robyn G. Bernabe, the principal percussionist, also performs as a timpanist and serves as the technical lead for TANGLAW, taking on key responsibilities behind the scenes. Their work is a reminder that the concert rests on more than talent. It also depends on initiative, adaptability, and commitment.
Left: Herrick Ortiz, Rocco Araña & Maddy Te catching the cello beat; Right: PSYO rehearsing with Christophe Bossuat
Those same qualities follow members well beyond rehearsal. Many of them balance music with demanding academic work, and their paths after school vary widely. The orchestra’s first concertmaster has passed the Accountancy Licensure Examination and is now pursuing law, while its current concertmaster is preparing for college, and other members have gone on to study music. Though they have taken different academic and professional paths, they remain actively involved with PSYO, continuing to serve the orchestra as musicians, faculty, or members of its technical and administrative team. Their journeys reflect the discipline, curiosity, and commitment nurtured through music—qualities that extend well beyond the concert stage and into the classroom and their chosen fields.
The orchestra has also taken its music abroad. PSYO has toured Italy and Hong Kong and has met and performed with Suzuki groups in Italy, Korea, and Hong Kong. On those trips, the young musicians performed for audiences who rarely hear orchestral music, including overseas Filipino workers far from home. They also formed friendships with young players from other countries, with music doing most of the talking.
A fuller sound, and younger players rising to it
This year, PSYO has a 21-member wind and brass section playing alongside its percussion. For a long time, the orchestra was mostly strings. With flutes, clarinets, French horns, and more now on stage, it can take on pieces like Jupiter, which simply can’t be played well without woodwinds and brass.
A new wind and brass section also means many first-time orchestra players. Some of the musicians now learning percussion instruments are among the orchestra’s youngest. That includes its youngest member: an eight-year-old percussionist who is already playing mallet instruments. Instruments like the snare drums and glockenspiel require quick reading and precise hands, and a wrong note rings out clearly in a quiet passage.
For PSYO’s teachers, the point is simple. Give young players a meaningful part, solid coaching, and room to make mistakes in rehearsal, and many will rise to the occasion. On November 21, you can hear that for yourself.
Left: A little tangled, a lot of teamwork; Right: Lizzie Bernabe (center) rounds up the early birds for the puzzle challenge
Sharing the Light Through Giving
The music will not end when the final note fades. PSYO intends to carry that spirit past the concert hall and into the wider community.
Each Christmas, PSYO organizes a gift-giving activity for the children and families of Better World Smokey Mountain, and this year continues that tradition—this time with a new addition. For the first time, the orchestra will also extend its outreach to CHILD Haus, the home co-founded by Hans Sy and Ricky Reyes that offers children with serious illnesses and their families a place to stay during treatment.
The effort is shaped by the people closest to the orchestra. PSYO parents, who already give so much time to lessons, rehearsals, and long drives to practice, are working alongside San Miguel Foundation’s Better World Smokey Mountain and CHILD Haus to make it happen. Akari will add light—a fitting contribution for an evening named after one—and will also help ensure that the children and families take home special gifts for Christmas.
Rev. Msgr. Rolando R. dela Cruz sees something in this that goes beyond the program notes.
“The Cathedral hears a great deal of music during Advent, but something changes when the musicians are children. They remind us that a gift is never fully ours until we share it. When these young people play for the community and then go out to meet the families of Smokey Mountain and CHILD Haus, they show us what Christmas asks of each of us: to become a light for someone else.”
The partnership reflects something the orchestra teaches every week. The same parents who support young musicians at home now extend that care to families facing harder seasons. For the young musicians themselves, this outreach is as much a part of the season as the concert is. Many will spend weeks rehearsing Christmas music, then hand gifts directly to children their own age who are facing very different circumstances. The young players who learn to listen closely to the chair beside them learn to notice who else might need a hand—and those encounters tend to stay with them long after the music fades.
A beacon, after all, is not meant to shine for itself. It is meant to help others find their way, and this Christmas, PSYO hopes its light will reach a little farther.
If you go
The concert starts at 6 PM. General admission is free. Reserved seats cost ₱1,000, or ₱880 for students, senior citizens, and PWDs, and they are limited.
If you have the afternoon free, walk through Intramuros first. The old walled city is at its loveliest as the heat breaks and the light turns gold on the stone, with the cathedral at its center.
PSYO is a non-profit, so a reserved ticket goes directly to supporting the young people on stage.
Simply showing up counts too. A full cathedral steadies a nervous young soloist. So does warm applause for an eight-year-old who has spent months learning one part.
Go for Jupiter, for Bach, or simply for the pleasure of hearing Christmas music under a cathedral dome. You’ll hear more than 70 young Filipino musicians play music they’ve spent years learning to play together, and you may find your Christmas season starts a little earlier this year.
Concert Details
TANGLAW — Philippine Suzuki Youth Orchestra
Date: Saturday, November 21, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM
Venue: The Manila Cathedral, Intramuros, Manila
Tickets:
- Regular reserved seating: ₱1,000
- Student, senior citizen, and PWD reserved seating: ₱880
Reserved seating is limited and subject to availability. General admission is free.
Reserve your tickets here, through Viber at +63 9544884775, or by scanning the QR code below.
About the Philippine Suzuki Youth Orchestra
The Philippine Suzuki Youth Orchestra (PSYO) is a non-stock, nonprofit organization founded in 2019 to nurture young musicians through the Suzuki Method and ensemble performance. It began as a small group and has since grown into an orchestra of more than 70 young instrumentalists.
PSYO has performed in the Philippines and abroad, including Italy and Hong Kong, and has participated in cultural exchanges with Suzuki groups in Italy, Korea, and Hong Kong. It has also appeared at Disneyland and at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ annual Pasinaya open-house festival.
The orchestra has received encouragement and support from National Artists Patis Tesoro, Ryan Cayabyab, and Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, as well as Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi. Through rehearsals, concerts, educational activities, collaborations, cultural exchanges, and community outreach, PSYO helps young musicians build their musical skills and develop discipline, confidence, perseverance, teamwork, responsibility, cultural awareness, and empathy.
As it continues to grow, PSYO remains committed to giving young Filipinos meaningful opportunities to learn, perform, and represent the Philippines with pride.
