Orchestra of the Filipino Youth Iloilo Tour

The Orchestra of the Filipino Youth (OFY) was performing in Iloilo and as groupies, we decided that it is worth the trip, despite me not being really fond of domestic travel.

We stayed at Injap Tower Hotel owned by the former owner of Mang Inasal before Jollibee bought it and Jollibee's majority owner. It's Iloilo's highest building at 21 floors.

My Mom and I travelled Friday evening.  Our flight was delayed for 2 hours and we arrived at the hotel at midnight. But when we woke up, the restaurant at the top floor made up for the hassles of the night before. We had a nice time at the Horizon Restaurant.  Below are the C girls having breakfast:

The concert was at the University of San Agustin at a 1,000 capacity auditorium.  The kids were excited because it was their biggest audience yet.  We decided to sit a bit far to be able to view the whole stage.  The performance was overwhelming and merited a standing ovation.  I am not a classical music lover but the performance moved me.  It was also probably seeing young people so dedicated with their music. They clearly loved every minute of it.



The next day, Mom and I decided to go to Tatoy's, a very popular seaside restaurant and had freshly baked oysters and their special chicken inasal.  We couldn't order more because it was just the two of us.

In the afternoon, we proceeded to Nelly's Garden for the OFY Afternoon Soiree which was an exclusive event attended by prominent members of the Iloilo community. The setting was at this lovely mansion:

Performances were held at the different parts of the lovely house. Everyone had a good time listening  to classical music in a historic and beautiful setting.

Just sharing some special moments with my sister and niece:

Night at the Museum

BIL's most recent concert was held at the Ayala Museum. Definitely a unique experience for us. He played popular classics as well as music that we heard for the first time. He also had some of his most outstanding students as guest performers. Aside from the performances, another highlight of the evening was cocktails at the M Cafe. We've been wanting to try the place and were not disappointed. The cocktails served were quite good. Can't wait to try their main courses.

Classical Music at Ilustrado

Here's an idea for a unique evening. Cocktails with overflowing wine at Ilustrado's romantic courtyard (I still remember JV and DV's wedding reception held here more than 10 years ago) and then classical piano music by world-renowned pianist, my BIL Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz, at Ilustrado's chamber room. Jovianney introduced the mini-concert by saying that this was how it was done centuries ago, a group of people gather in homes to watch and listen to artists perform. There will be more evenings such as this, watch this space for further announcements.

An Evening of Classical Music

In true "Reinventing Date Nights" fashion, E and I, together with my family spent an evening watching the performance of a world renowned pianist (a.k.a my BIL). It was a new experience for us. And I must say, exciting, because it was a heart-stopping performance and the performer is a part of our family. Another notable part of the performance, John-Em spoke to the audience before every piece to give a background of the composers and how the composition came about, and he was funny! It was truly a lesson in music and history. We hope to learn more in his next performances...