Cultural Studies Pioneer Florentino H. Hornedo dies

Press Update:

ESTEEMED scholar, professor, cultural studies pioneer and expert in Ivatan culture Florentino H. Hornedo passed away on December 9, 2015 in his home province of Batanes. He was 77.

A CCP Gawad Para sa Sining awardee for Cultural Research in 2012, Hornedo was honored for his contributions to the development of the discipline of cultural studies in the Philippines. He was lauded for choosing “to take a prodigious path to inquire and theorize about the breadth, depth, and complexities of the Filipino mind and identity.”

In an article Hornedo wrote for Kultura Magazine, vol. 2 no.1, 1989, he expounded on the term “Filipinicity” and theorized that Philippine folk and popular literature was the result of forces such as significant and important events in Philippine history.

“Our Filipinicity is the late Frank Lynch’s dictum: Today’s native was yesterday’s visitors, Hornedo said. To elaborate, he pointed to American Willys jeep and the Japanese Honda motorcycle as yesterday’s visitors that have become natives. These motor vehicles, Hornedo said, were appropriated by Filipinos, in their quest for mobility and transportation.  The process of appropriation have caused these modes of transport to become Filipino, naturalized by possession and/or association.

Hornedo studied Philippine ethnic traditions, precolonial and colonial history and contemporary society.

An Ivatan and native of Sabtang, Batanes, he devoted much of his scholarly research to the Ivatans as well as the Bago-o people and Kankanay culture.

He was a prolific writer, researcher and author of journal articles, monographs and books such as  Laji:  An Ivatan Folk Lyric Tradition (1979), Pagmamahal and Pagmumura Essays (1997), Culture and Community in the Philippine Fiesta and Other Celebrations (2000), Taming the Wind:  Ethno-Cultural History on the Ivatan of the Batanes Isles (2000),The Glitter of Gold in Batanes Cultural Heritage (2000), The Favor of the Gods:  Essays in Filipino Religious Thought and Behavior (2001), Ideas and Ideals:  Essays in Filipino Cognitive History (2001), Pagpapakatao and Other Essays in Contemporary Philosophy and Literature of Ideas (2001) and Epics and Ballads of Lam-ang’s Land and People(Bago-o Traditional Literature of the Bakun and Amburayan River Valleys) (2006).

He was a full professor of the Ateneo de Manila University, professorial lecturer at the Graduate School of the University of Santo Tomas and a visiting professor in 20 university in Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and the USA.

He was commissioner of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, commissioner for Ivatan language at the Commission on Filipino Language and consultant to the Southeast Asian Arts and Culture project of the ASEAN and UNESCO Center for Asian Culture in Tokyo, Japan.  He served as chair of the UNESCO International Committee that drafted the “Statement on International Intangible Heritage” at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. in 1999.

Hornedo was born on October 16, 1938. 

PPO Music Director Ochanine Wins International Conducting Competition

Press Announcement:

MUSIC Director and Principal Conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra Maestro Olivier Ochanine won the first prize in the recently concluded first edition of the Antal Dorati International Conducting Competition held in Budapest, Hungary on November 28, 2015.

Maestro Ochanine shared the first prize with Azerbaijan conductor Orkahn Hashimov.  The second prize was won by Joost Smeets from the Netherlands.  

The three conductors went through three gruelling competition rounds before they reached the final round. These were the eliminations on November 23 which saw the participation of 120 conductors from different parts of the world; the 2^nd round on November 25 wherein the competitors were narrowed down to 30; and the semi-finals  on November 26 wherein the competitors were  narrowed down to 10. The conductors were down to three on the final round.

During the finals, Maestro Ochanine, while suffering from the pain of post-surgery for a fractured fifth metacarpal on his right hand, conducted two pieces: the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”, and the competition piece “Cyclos”, a new work by Italian composer Andrea Portera. His performance greatly impressed the jury led by renowned Hungarian pianist and conductor Tamás Vásáry.

As part of his prize, Maestro Ochanine will have the opportunity to conduct the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MAV, the “I virtuosi italiani” Orchestra in Verona, Italy, and the “F. Chopin” Philharmonic Orchestra in Danzic, Poland on its 2016/2017 season.  He will also have the chance to participate in the 2016/2017 season of theEszterházy Vigasságok (Festival) in the Hungarian Esterházy Castle. A contract proposal with Contempoars International Artists Agency is also in the offing.

Olivier Ochanine began his music studies in France. He  went on to take studies in the United States, then expanding to orchestral conducting and taking graduate studies while attending master classes with some of the best mentors in the US. He obtained his master’s degree in Conducting from the University of Southern California (USC) and began his doctoral studies in Orchestral Conducting at the Cincinatti College-Conservatory of Music under Mark Gibson. He is on his sixth and last season as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. 

The Competition is named after Antal Dorati, the late world renowned Hungarian conductor and composer who died in 1988.