Josefino Chino Toledo, conductor

TOYM awardee and International Award for the Arts recipient JOSEFINO CHINO TOLEDO is a recognized figure in Asian contemporary art music scene. Currently a professor of music composition and theory at the University of the Philippines, College of Music; he is the founding music director of Metro Manila Community Orchestra, University of the Philippines Festival Orchestra, Crosswave Symphony Orchestra Project and the chamber vocal ensemble AUIT; former music director of Manila Symphony Orchestra and Peace Philharmonic Orchestra of the Philippines; and guest conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in its concerts and other orchestral activities

Mr. Toledo is noted for premiering works of Filipino composers as well as other Asian composers. As the artistic director of the 1997 Asian Composers League Music Festival in Manila, he was cited for remarkably conducting the local premier of twenty contemporary music compositions during the week-long festival. Mr. Toledo was also critically praised for his conducting of premier performances of new works by Filipino composers during the Philippine Centennial Celebration; and conducted at the Art Summit Festival in Indonesia; Pacific Soundstream Festival; Federation Music Week in Melbourne and several festivals in Japan. In the 2004 Philippine Arts Month Festival, he led the Metro-Manila Community Orchestra to a critically acclaimed 8-concert series within the cities of Metro-Manila. He was frequently invited to be the music director and conductor of several Cultural Center of the Philippines productions and performances, among them “Lagi Kitang Mamahalin”, “Lagi Kitang Naaalala”, “Salinlahi”, “Magkaugnay”, and “Virtuosi”.

His conducting has been described as "clear and expressive", and "like weaving a musical magic". According to Philippine art critic and National Artist, the late Leonor Goquingco, “Toledo is one of the (Philippines’) finest and best conductors ever.”

Mr. Toledo’s own music includes works for chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, solo instrument and music theater. His compositions have been performed by well known international artists and ensembles such as the New Juilliard Ensemble; guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita; percussionists Isao Nakamura, Peter Neville and Thierry Miroglio; trombonist Barry Webb; Hong Kong Sinfonietta; Tokyo Symphony Orchestra; Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra; Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, among others in Europe, North and South America, and Asia - and featured in several international concerts; and music festivals such as Focus! (N.Y), Gaudeamus (Amsterdam), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Israel Asian Music Festival, Horizonte (Germany), Tokyo Asian Arts Festival, Aspekt! (Austria), Hong Kong Musicarama, Asian Music Week 2000 (Japan), Nagano Music Festival, 2001 Melbourne Federation Music Week and the Asian Composers League Festivals.

His music has been described as "pure and powerful", and has been cited for its fusion of contemporary western language and Southeast Asian aesthetics. Music critic Rosalinda Orosa described Mr. Toledo as “a composer-conductor of considerable worth” and “…an ingenious, remarkably original composer of singular creativity and imagination.”

Mr.Toledo is cited in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2000ed.-UK); 20th Century Composers of Asia (2002–Tokyo); Komponisten der Gegenwart (2003– Berlin/Munich); Philippine Encyclopedia for the Arts (CCP); Who’s Who in International Music (England); and Who’s Who in Australasia and Far East (England). Among his awards Civitella Ranieri Fellowship Award in Italy; ASCAP- Raymund Hubbel Award in Composition; and the Chancellor Awards for Outstanding Musical Works from the University of the Philippines.

On March, 2006, the Institute for Orchestral Development in the Philippines commissioned Mr. Toledo to compose a major work for piano and orchestra for performance for the 6th MMCO Concert Season. On February 24, 2007, EKONTRA:KONGRUO:IUNKTUM was performed at the Main Theater of the CCP with Dr. Raul Sunico, pianist.

The Metro Manila Community Orchestra

Fifty one musicians with ages ranging from 15 to 60 years meet twice weekly at the Center for Applied Music of Miriam College. They all share a common love for music. Under Music Director and Conductor Josefino Chino Toledo, these gifted artists work on a vast orchestral repertoire ranging from classical symphonies, popular classics, to merging Filipino music. Since it was founded in 2000 by the Institute for Orchestral Development of the Philippines, the MMCO, with the support of benefactors, has brought the power of beautiful music to thousands of people performing in concert halls, in malls, in schools, in churches, and in town plazas. It is a group composed of students, and professionals who are in the academe, in business, in the military, and in government.

Within the last three years, the MMCO has created a music development program spearheading new works for orchestra.  With a grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the support of Ayala Westgrove Heights, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Music Underkonstruction project has premiered eighteen new symphonic compositions by emerging young composers featuring five symphonic works, eight with violin, and five with voice. For 2008, Music Underkonstruction will introduce new works for orchestra with chorus.

On February 24, 2007, after a hiatus of over twenty years, the world premiere of a major new work for piano & orchestra in 3 movements, EKONTRA:KONGRUO:IUNKTUM, composed by Professor Josefino Chino Toledo was premiered by internationally renowned pianist Raul Sunico at the Main Theater of the CCP. Now running on its 4th Season, the MMCO, through the innovative and successful Ayala Westgrove Heights Symphony Series, has performed in over fifteen Metro Manila Communities, educating and bringing the power and beauty of music to a growing audience of symphonic music lovers.

On July 1, 2007, the MMCO, in cooperation with the Cultural Center of the Philippines launched Cradle Music for Babes and Babies, the first concert designed for infants and children with an instructional mode to introduce children and their families towards an appreciation and understanding of classical music. This project was launched with the support of Community Innovations, an Ayala Land Company and Verdana Homes, Mamplasan. A second concert is slated October 31, 2008 with an over-all objective of implementing a concert season for children.

With the assistance of Ayala Westgrove Heights , MCO Foundation, BDO, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Miriam College, and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the MMCO opened its 7th MMCO Concert Season on October 20, 2007 with music from the opera and premiered on December the Christmas Oratorio of Bach in three churches: Santuario de San Jose, Greenhills, the Church of the GESU, Ateneo, and Church of St. James the Great, Alabang, featuring the UP Camerata Voices, the Ateneo Chamber Singers and the Novo Concertante. Ending the season in February with the Brahms Violin Concerto in D Major with noted violinist, Alfonso Coke Bolipata at the CCP, the MMCO opens the year with the launching of FILFEST at the Insular Life and looks forward to continuing its work of entertaining the public with the forthcoming First Miriam Concert Season in Quezon City, Cradle Music at CCP, the 4th Season Ayala Westgrove Heights Symphony Series, OPUSFEST: The International Piano & Chamber Music Festival Philippines 2008, and the 8th MMCO Concert Season performing the great works of Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Beethoven with world-class pianists Albert Tiu, Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz, and Cristine Coyiuto.