errol c. mendoza
Program
1. The choral piece “Take This Gift” by Tracy Wong celebrates the lifelong relationships nurtured within the choral community and honors the priceless gift of shared choral experiences. It is an optimistic, joyous piece often used as a parting gift for choirs marking anniversaries, graduations, or farewells, highlighting the communal love for singing and the deep bonds formed through music.
2. The Bomba traditional song “Ola de la Mar” is a lament about the community suffering from drought, expressing sorrow and urgency due to the people’s need for water. It uses the metaphor of the ocean’s wave (Ola de la mar ) to call for peace and relief amidst hardship, symbolizing resilience and collective care.
3. “Evermore Without You” - The song expresses deep feelings of loss and longing for a loved one from the musical “The Lady in White”
by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
4. “Bituing Marikit" is a popular Filipino folk song that tells a story of a person who is captivated by the beauty of a starry night sky. The song's iconic opening line "Bituing marikit sa gabi ng buhay," meaning beautiful star in the night of life, is a metaphorical description of life's journey.
5. “Think of Me” from Phantom of Opera -The song expresses Christine's desire for recognition and remembrance as she embarks on her singing career.
6. “Iyo Kailan Pa Man” is a love song expressing deep affection and yearning for a beloved. The exact inspiration or experience that moved the composer to write it is uncertain, but the lyrics reflect a profound and heartfelt emotion.”
7. “Mutya Ng Pasig” The song celebrates the beauty and grace of the Pasig River and its cultural significance. It personifies the river as a beloved muse, symbolizing love and nostalgia.
8. “Sapagkat Kami ay Tao Lamang” The song reflects the human experience and the imperfections that come with it. It emphasizes the idea of vulnerability and the need for compassion among people.
9. The “Warsaw Concerto” is a short piano concerto by Richard Addinsell, composed for the 1941 British film Dangerous Moonlight. It represents the emotional struggle and romance during the Nazi invasion of Warsaw in World War II, capturing both the patriotic spirit of Poland and the love story of the film’s main characters. The piece was crafted to emulate the style of Rachmaninoff and has become a popular and powerful miniature concerto, symbolizing hope and resilience amidst wartime darkness.
10. ”l Could Have Danced All Night” is a song from the 1956 musical “My Fair Lady” The song is in celebration of her breakthrough moment of her diction lessons with Professor Higgins and her personal feelings toward him.
11. ”Pagdadalamhati ni Jasmin”
An aria from the Filipino Opera “ Karim at Jasmin” by Filipino Composer Dr Ramon Geluz.
The song is an expression of Jasmi’s undying love for husband Karim who got killed in the battle against their
enemies.
12. ”Italian Street Song”
A song from the operetta “Naughty Marietta “ It is a song sung by Marietta an Italian Countess and talks about her hometown Napoli and how she misses it.
13. “Kaming Magmamani” an Akeanon Folksong from the Philippines. The song celebrates the camaraderie and resilience of peanut vendors. It highlights the daily struggles and joys of street vendors in Filipino culture. The lyrics reflect themes of hard work, perseverance, and community support.
14. “A Christmas Carol” from the musical Scrooge by Leslie Bricusse
15. “Sa Kabukiran”
A song that celebrates the simple life in the countryside of the Philippines.
16. The song “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” celebrates the arrival of Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ, encouraging everyone to sing joyful songs because God is love. It also inspires people to love one another, follow good teachings, and strive for a prosperous new year together. This captures the spirit of Filipino Christmas as a time of joy, worship, and goodwill.
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Errol C. Mendoza
PUBLIC REACTION
“As it turned out, the engine that would drive Mendozas composition was a conflation of motion, movement, dynamics, rhythmic pattern, flux, flow, fluidity, unrest . Yet all these would be tempered by the grace of lyricism and a high-spirited playfulness.”
- Cid Reyes, Foremost Filipino Art Critic“
"The advantage of Mendoza is that he has not yet fallen into mannerisms, idiosyncrasies and eccentricities — alas, vices that are engendered and encouraged by newfound fame and fortune. For artists like Errol Mendoza for whom art making is a joint venture with his instinct, visual-intelligence and frisky imagination, abstraction can be generous, opening up the bliss of its Arcadian realm.”
- Cid Reyes, Foremost Filipino Art Critic
"Mendoza’s stylized imaginative perspectives evoke a quality of exoticism and an essence of the ethereal.”
- Gail Dubinbaum, former mezzo-soprano, Metropolitan Opera
"Errol C. Mendoza is a wonderful and varied artist with an innate color sense and a basic abstract approach to his work.”
- Mike Gordon, British poet
“I love Errol's work - his eclectic style, his use of color and motion, his ability to see beyond the surface of an object and reveal its true nature. Every connoisseur of real art should want to own one of these fine pieces.”
- John Massaro, American composer and conductor
“Errol Mendoza’s work inspires a creative vibrant energy that lights up that part of my soul and makes me feel limitless.”
- Lloyd Johnson, Creative Director
"Mendoza’s striking compositions compel the viewer into a world of color that pushes and pulls their imagination."
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- Craig Cardwell, American photographer and painter
“I have been impressed with his conceptual interpretations of various themes existing simultaneously. He is and will be one of the most valuable artists in my collection.”
- Robert Corbin, American Art Collector
Maria Cristina Kit Navarro, has given recitals, orchestral guest appearances and opera performances in Switzerland, the United States, Philippines and Austria. The Orange County Register describes her as “the gifted soprano… whose effortless production and lustrous, satiny tone were angelic” … “a coloratura specialist whose portrayal has harvested special applause” according to the Badener Tagblatt.
She has performed with the Biel, Basel and Baden Theaters of Switzerland, San Diego Opera, Los Angeles Opera, El Paso Opera, Long Beach Opera and Opera Pacific. Notable roles she has done were Queen of the Night, Olympia, Adina, Nerina, Najade, Clorinda and Pedro. Kit has portrayed the Matchmaker in LA Opera’s commissioned work On Gold Mountain by Nathan Wang, Jasmin in the Filipino opera Karim at Jasmin by Dr. Ramon Geluz, Sisa in Felipe de Leon’s Noli Me Tangere, the opera and Maria Clara in Ryan Cayabyab’s Noli Me Tangere, the musicale.
She has done guest appearances for Stadtorchester Solothurn, Children’s Orchestra Society of New York, Pacific Symphony, Pacific Chorale, Kalamazoo Symphony in Michigan, Corona del Mar Baroque Festival, Rochester Music Society concert series, Filipino- American Symphony Orchestra, ABS-CBN Symphony Orchestra and Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Filipino Artist Series among others. Her solo soprano repertoire includes the Requiems of Faure, Brahms and Mozart, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus and Dixit Dominus, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s St. John Passion and Cantata #51 (Jauchzet Gott), Schubert’s Mass in G, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Mass in Cm, etc.
Kit has sung for the films Click and Lady in the Water with the LA Master Chorale, John Alexander Singers’ CD American Voices, Jake Heggie’s Choral Opera: The Radio Hour with Susan Graham and To the Hands, a choral-theatrical film, officially selected to the 2025 Newport Beach Film Festival and Pasadena Film Festival. She has been a part of Andrea Bocelli’s Christmas concerts in California, the West Coast tour of Lord of the Rings with the Munich Symphony Orchestra and back-up vocals for Reba McEntire at the Hollywood Bowl. She has been a soloist for Pacific Chorale in its tours of Spain, Paris, Budapest and Vienna, Munich, Salzburg, UK and joined the chorale as one of the invited performers for Phillip Glass’ 80th Birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall in NY.
Kit received her Bachelor’s Degree in Voice at the University of the Philippines and her Diploma in Music Theater Studies at the Biel Conservatory/Music School in Switzerland. A first prize winner in the National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA), she was also a recipient of the Migros Genossenschafts Bund study grant and a first prize winner in the Elvira Luthi Wegmann Vocal Competition in Switzerland. She was recently given the Excellence in Music award by the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra (FASO) in Los Angeles for her outstanding achievements and artistic contributions to the community. Kit is currently a staff singer of the Grammy winning Pacific Chorale, the Meistersingers and Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Newport Beach.
Errol C. Mendoza illustrates alternative visions of humanity with varied colors evocative multiple styles showing diverse images of the contemporary world.
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Existential tones characterize his creation: the meaning of the world is illuminated by the “natural candle” that each of us personifies.
The defining moment of the artist is when he believes the artist has the full freedom to imbue emotional potency.
He believes that art is an integral part of life and the creation of art resolves the longings of one’s soul. Art portrays the limitless galaxy of the mind and is a vital factor in the development of the whole man. This is what inspires him.
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Born and raised in Baguio City, Philippines, Errol pursued a career in the theatre arts as a teacher, administrator, stage director, and actor at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the country’s national theatre.
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He lived in the United Kingdom — for most of his educational and adult life. As a scholarship grantee, he took a postgraduate course in theatre arts at the Sherman Theatre of University College, University of Wales. He took up advanced studies in drama and theatre at the British Theatre Association, which compromises of the leading drama schools in London. He also took an advanced course in communication arts with the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) at the Catholic Radio and TV Centre in Middlesex.
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For convenience and immediacy in creating his artistic compositions, he uses an iPad as a medium. He translates them on canvas and highlights them partly or wholly in oil or alternatively paints with oil or acrylic on canvas.
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A self-taught practitioner influenced by the great impressionists as well as the masters of modern art, he illustrates a vast range of subject matters with the best artistic styles. His theatrical background infuses his works with elan.
Alexandré Legaspi
Alexandré is a soprano and music educator with a degree in Music Performance and Music Education from California State University, Long Beach. While at CSULB, she performed in opera scenes as Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, the Third Spirit in The Magic Flute, and in the chorus of Don Giovanni.
Alexandré currently serves as an elementary music teacher in the Ocean View School District and teaches musicianship for the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and the National Children’s Chorus. She has also directed and coached choirs and youth ensembles with Immaculate Heart of Mary School and the Filipino-American Symphony Orchestra.
She is a member of the Sterling Ensemble under the direction of Michelle Jensen and with an upcoming Latin American concert on Sunday, November 16, at 7:00 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church.
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Ma. Lidia Makiling-Leaño
Lidia Leaño, soprano, is no stranger to musical theater. She has played leading roles such as Anang in the zarzuela Ana Maria, the mother of Dencio in Sumpang Mahal, and Sepa in Bulaklak ng Kabundukan. She has also appeared in operas including The Tales of Hoffmannand The Mikado.
Lidia graduated from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Voice. She was a soloist with the world-renowned University of the Philippines Concert Chorus and joined the group on international tours to the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia in 1994 and 1996.
Currently, Lidia is a member of the Holy Family Filipino Chorale. In addition to her musical pursuits, she works full-time as a customer service representative at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Edgar Labor
Edgar is a tenor who has been an active member of Simbayanan Chorale. He was also a member of the University of the Philippines Concert Chorus and the Los Cancioneros Master Chorale, where he contributed to numerous performances showcasing a love for choral music and collaboration. He has had short solos that highlight his clear tone and expressive musicality. Through these choirs, he has developed a deeper appreciation for harmony and a joy of performing for audiences. Outside of choir, Edgar continues to explore music as a creative outlet and looks forward to sharing his passion through every performance.
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Emmanuel Eulalia
Manny is a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University (BA Communcation Arts). He has a Masters Degree in Communication Arts Broadcasting from Loyola Marymount University. He is presently a faculty member and the chair for Visual and Performing Arts at St. Francis High School in La Canada. This is his 34th year of teaching at St. Francis, Go Knights!
At Holy Family parish, he has been a cantor and choir member since 1986, and has been part of the Filipino Chorale since its inception under Tom Makiling. Manny was a member of the Ateneo College Glee Club under the tutelage of Joel Navarro, and the LMU Men's Chorus under the late Paul Salumanovich.
He feels blessed and honored to be part of the Filipino choir of Holy Family, Glendale.
The Holy Family Filipino Chorale
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Founded in 1993 under the direction of Tom Makiling, the Holy Family Filipino Chorale (HFFC) has grown into a 25-member ensemble dedicated to liturgical service and cultural enrichment. HFFC has performed at the Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration, the World Festival of Sacred Music, and Carnegie Hall under the baton of Maestro Jonathan Griffith. The group has been recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives, the California State Senate, and the City of Glendale for its contributions to the community. Blending sacred and Filipino musical traditions, HFFC continues to inspire through music, outreach to the homeless and the sick, and weekly participation at the 11:00 A.M. Mass at Holy Family Church in Glendale, California. In 2024, the chorale proudly celebrates its 30th anniversary.
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Holy Family Children’s Concert Chorus (HFCCC)
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The Holy Family Children’s Concert Chorus (HFCCC) is the official ambassador of goodwill for Holy Family Grade School and a proud member of Pueri Cantores, the international Catholic federation of children’s choirs. Founded in 2000, HFCCC has performed in Rome, Assisi, Barcelona, Washington, D.C., Carnegie Hall, and with the LA Opera Company, earning acclaim locally and abroad. In addition to weekly school Masses, the chorus joins international festivals every few years.