Memories
by Ricardo Zarco, Jr., M.D.
There is a time in every person’s childhood that he or she can look back to with a sense of fondness, wonder or even magic. For some, that time could have been only minutes long. For me, it was from 1971-1979 – the same eight years I spent as a member of the U.P. Cherubim and Seraphim.
I started out with the first batch of members in 1971. I honestly did not see any point to what we were being made to do back then, but there was always a certain appeal about working with other children your own age. So, from singing with an imaginary marble in your mouth, to running around the College of Music twice or thrice, or climbing onstage in front of a few hundred people – we were all in it together.
I am thankful for that bond, because it made discipline easier to get used to. Before anything spectacular could happen, we had to accept discipline. Whether it came to behaving ourselves at rehearsals, in public places, or onstage, Mrs. Rivera made it clear that she expected it from us – or else.
Fortunately for us, discipline did become part of our lives, and though we didn’t know it at the time, the magic of our experience was beginning. Everything else followed. Singing and music in general revealed the secrets of its beauty as we learned, practiced and performed more than a hundred different songs. I don’t know of any better way to appreciate a good piece of music than to learn it, practice it and perform it well. And in going throughout that process over a hundred times together, not only made music a prominent part of our consciousness, we became important parts of each others lives as well.
The best thing of all was that when the first batch graduated in 1979, music came to be something that comforted and inspired us, not purely because we had been trained to understand or appreciate it, but also because it was through music that we found a place where each of us belonged, felt important, and fulfilled.
