Being a Member

By Ma. Magdalena (Leny/ “Big Mama”) S.P. Silverio

I am not young anymore and my memories are of a time 48+ years ago.  But I will try and share with you snippets of memories of my time with the group. Special thanks to my parents, and brother for supporting me through all those years.  Thank you to everyone in the group, especially those in “Erste Stimmen” who contributed and shared their memories with me - Aura Castillo, Beng Santos, Chally Romero, Dennis Bautista, Eric Nera, Edgar Tordesillas, Jeanne Primero, Nicco Gapuz, Rae Anne Jose-valenzuela.

The nearly 9 years of being a member of UPCS were some of the best years of my young life.  Instantly, a family of 30+ brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and, of course, Mom Rivera.My life as a Cherub began when I was introduced by Ms. Ella Cabreza, a sister of my Mom’s co-worker at the U.P. Coop to Mrs. Flora Zarco Rivera. Auntie Ella was the UPCS Business Manager at the time.  It was a short audition, singing in front of an upright piano with Mom giving me short notes to follow and sing.  Who would have known my life would change from then on?  The experiences and lessons I learned have contributed to who I am as an adult.  If it weren’t for them, I would not be sitting right now writing about this amazing group.

REHEARSALS

After auditioning, you become an apprentice until you graduated to become a full member.  We think the magic number was 30 full time singers.  Life as a UPCS member was never easy.  It was not just singing and playing.  IT WAS HARD WORK! Rehearsals were usually 1-2 days a week, or sometimes more when we were getting ready for a concert or trip.  It was typically after school from 5- 7 (or even later in the evenings during the weekdays).  Saturdays were reserved for dance lessons with Tita Lydia Buendia, bandurria or gamelan lessons, or swimming together for fun at the UP pool.  

If we were early for rehearsals, you would find us playing at the quadrangle of Abelardo Hall, having a snack at the little concession at the end of the hallway, or sprawled on the floor under the stairs playing jacks. The older kids did homework (as we did not have time to do them at home), and sometimes we would be asked by Mom to collate musical sheets and staple them together.  I was once assigned to be the librarian  organizing the scores in the filing cabinet.  

Sitting on the edges of rickety, wooden desk chairs and with our backs straight, we would start with our arpeggios/scales one-by-one and then sing all together.  Aura remembered we did calisthenics during vocalization, putting two fingers in our mouths while singing and then make sure to smile.  She said “dami tulo laway”.  Beng remembered we even pretended to put balls in our mouths to keep them rounded.   We practiced voice projection by singing, “softly as to not wake a baby,” loudly to the hallways, or as far as the Carillon or sunken garden.  Beng also recalled we would be bent over with clasped hands swinging it like an elephants’ trunk and screaming (hiyawwww) while vocalizing to do this.

We learned Italian words that young minds like ours would not even be interested in – allegro, andante, ritardando, forte, pianissimo, etc.  We also learned about breathing techniques: holding breaths until the end of a line, learning not to breath too loudly, staggering breaths so songs would not sound choppy; learning to sing staccatos and runs, learning pronunciation, diction, languages/dialects, movement and rhythm (one of the hardest avant garde music we ever learned in my opinion was Aleluya by Ramon Santos).   

Language lessons with Uncle Reli Estanislao were always fun.  Latin, German, French, et al.  Repeated pronunciations, rolling our R’s, sounding our ch and z’s, ending our t’s, d’s and s’s.  Edgar Tordesillas shared how Uncle Reli would tell us “to pronounce the umlauts, you round your mouth like puwet ng baboy!”.  When Uncle Reli passed away, I remember Dennis Bautista and Ricky Santos taking over.  

I also remember, one-on-one tutorials with Mom at her second-floor studio.  She would teach me on how to improve my skills – pitch, how to tame my voice (being the loud mouth), harmonizing, and how to keep my mouth round when singing to have a rounded sound versus the “boses ipis”.  She entrusted me with her A-440 tuning fork and would let me give the “A” note during a capella songs.  I remember once during a German concert I gave the wrong tune and she stopped the singing to repeat from the beginning because we sounded awful.  I guess I ate too much sauerkraut then!  It was so nerve wracking at first singing in front of her; but she made me feel so relaxed that it felt singing was second nature.  We worked on the songs Sampaguita and Sa Mahal Kong Bayan by my Lolo Lucio San Pedro.  

But one of the important lessons we learned from her was singing and putting our emotions into music.  And SMILING while singing.  I can still envision her pulling the corners of her mouth with her forefinger and thumb while conducting.  At the end of each concerts, it was not just our voices tired but our smile muscles being put to work for at least 2 hours!  Whew!

CONCERTS

The earliest concert I remember was Bernstein’s “Mass.”  As little kids, we thought we were stars being part of such a large production. I remember chasing the Big Stars- asking for their autographs and pictures.  We met the likes of Imelda Marcos and her dignitary guests, Cocoy Laurel, Marianne de la Riva, Jose Marie Chan (Eric reminded us of the Sweden ice cream commercial), Tito Pepe Pimentel, Fides Cuyugan, and Vilma Santos (Jeanne said they were part of a movie she made).  We thought we were big time stars!  What more when we got the accolades/awards from national competitions and the special recognition from the Vienna competition.  Mom always kept us grounded.  We continued to work!

Oh, those wonderful and colorful uniforms we had!  The white shorts, tees and turtlenecks, suspenders and knee-high socks were our first set (if I recall right).  Then we had the cream jumpers, shorts and vest for the boys with green under shirts.  I believe I still have the Christmas bell and poinsettia brooches we used to tuck on our chest.  The barong uniforms – white gala and pink embroidered ones we used in Europe.  The colorful pop uniforms with the red scarves, the various national costumes we wore for the Filipiniana section - patadyongs, butterfly sleeves and Maria Clara.  Who would forget the travel uniforms: the rust, light blue suit, and dark blue suit with matching hats.  All worn with the UPCS logo T shirts. It was a skill to learn how to fold/roll and pack all these in our luggage so they would not be wrinkled.

Changing costumes between sections was another skill mastered. Given only a few minutes between sections, we ran from our risers to the dressing room - undressing half naked in-front of the boys with no malice!  They were even helpful zipping/unzipping us or putting towels around us for modesty.  

Make-up - Thank you Titas Lydia, Linda Sherman and Luz Arrieta.  We thought we looked like raccoons or Raggedy Anns and Andys with thick eyeliner, rouge and lipstick!  Tita Lydia would say, “the bright stage lights would show your faces off better!”  Who would contradict her when she was the entertainer herself?  When the older girls learned to do make up, we had to do the boys ourselves.  That was fun!

TRIPS

You would think trips with 40 plus people (mostly children) would be a nightmare or chaos.  Thanks to our Dean of Discipline, Tito Romy Tech and the other chaperones for keeping us all straight.  We were a well-oiled machine! I can still see Tito Romy with his attache case in hand containing all our travel documents.  He and Tito Carl Castro were in charge of luggages and equipment – Tinikling bamboo poles, risers, musical instruments, dance props, acoustic boards and the likes.  They were also in charge of keeping our schedules on time.  

Buses, cars, trains, boats and planes, we rode it all!  In airports and terminals, we mastered the art of the “baggage chain”.  It started by forming a long line to pass a luggage one-to-another and placing them in a neat pile then transferring them to the bus.  I’m surprised we never lost any!

We were afraid that traveling with so many people would result in someone getting lost, however we came up with the count-off system (I remember in Germany we learned to count off in German).  Immediately upon boarding the bus and when everyone had settled,  someone would shout “COUNT OFF!”   There was always a delay when it came to 32 and we sometimes would shout out with the person. ..(guess who?) Then there was the buddy system.  Older members were paired off with younger ones.  It taught the older ones responsibility for our younger brothers or sisters by making sure they behaved, organized their stuff and were ready to go when Tito Romy or Mom says “Go!”. I think that’s when everyone gave me the nickname Big Mama.  

Before we went on a trip, Mrs. Rivera would send our parents a check-list of everything to bring.  The list would comprise of necessary uniforms, toiletries, amount of underwear, medications (Tito Doc Bautista and Tita Ester Santos made sure we took our medications if we had any), and gifts to give to our foster families to remind them of the country we came from and our culture.  We were also mandated to attend classes to learn basic manners of eating, conversing, and behaving around foreigners; we attended language coaching wherein we learned basic conversation/dialogues and culture of the country we were visiting.  And of course, we had to learn how to sing their National Anthems.  

Often, we stayed with foster families (who we sometimes kept in touch with even after the trip).  We stayed at YMCA’s/hostels, motels and the like.  I remember our Laoag, Ilocos trip where we stayed in a big room (was it a church?) with multiple cots and had to share only one or two bathrooms! It was also scary because there were bats hanging from the ceiling (Yikes!).  Lastly, I recall in Germany, at the YMCA we stayed in, we had to put away our own dishes after meals then washed them.  And we also made our own beds!

Being a member of a big group, we had to behave even when we were just kids, but of course, this did not happen all the time.  We weren’t always angels.  We would be grounded if we were late, wore the wrong uniform or misbehaved.  That means you either do not participate in a concert, sit out an activity, are scolded or you stay with the older ones.  I was scolded once for leaving my kamison  for my barong by Mrs. Rivera.  I remember crying while singing during the classical section of our concert especially when Mom looked at me.  Talk about emoting.

Sometimes it cannot be helped that our trips were scheduled during school days.  You would think you would be free from lessons and homework.  Enter: Tita Estrell Zarco.  She would tutor us in school lessons or assignments given by our own teachers and made sure we submitted them when we got back.   I believe there were repercussions when we had low grades or failed.  I cannot remember though.

I also remember having sleepovers at Mom's house.  Imagine us packed like sardines in her big house.  I also slept over sometimes when my parents were unable to pick me up after a concert or trip.  She made sure to feed me a good breakfast and then take me to school where my mom would meet me with my school stuff and uniform.  

SAMUT-SARI

Mom came up with a core group of singers who would do recordings.  I believe it was in Bulacan. We produced two records as far as I know.  One entitled plain UPCS, it included  religious songs plus Lupang Sarili and Batang Magalang.  The other one is entitled UPCS Mga Awit Sa Sabsaban,  which  comprised of Tagalog Christmas Songs and Aleluya by R. Santos.  When I play them it makes me sentimental, nostalgic, and I start crying when I reminisce about the good ole days.

Christmas was fun as Chally remembered.  We would go carol at so many houses a night to raise funds.  I remembered the snacks they served or we took from some of those houses. 

When we were Juniors/Seniors and earned our second wings, Lennette organized a small Recorder Group.  We would rehearse and give concerts of our own too.

I know that my last official stint with the UPCS was the European tour in 1979.  I believe I hung on for another year or two, but I attended inconsistently.  I remember, seniors were “graduated”.  I was exceptionally grateful to Mom for appreciating and believing in my talents and referring me to Tita Andy Veneracion and the Madrigal singers.  I was only with them for a few weeks as I later transferred to PGH for my professional courses.  I would have been a bigger star if I had stayed, hehe!

But suffice to say, I was happy being once One Voice with one wing.  Then as we grew two wings and our talents honed, I felt I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing!  because Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika.  My Munting Tinig had improved and grew as the Light Sings.   I just hope that When I am 64 (in 7 years!) I will still be singing with you all about Payapang Daigdig for our Bayan Ko and Sa Ugoy ng Duyan for our beloved Mom. (Corny ba?)

Congratulations and Happy 50th anniversary to all!  I hope that this Covid 19 Pandemic will be over by September 2021 so we can all see each other and do this reunion in person.  I can’t wait to sing with all of you again and thank you for this opportunity. It was an honor to put all these wonderful memories in paper.  A few more years and we might not remember any of this. 

This is Big Mama, signing off for now!

July 7, 2020

Lexington, KY

U.S.A