Aries Caces, guest conductor

Aries Caces is one of the most versatile Filipino concert artists. Aside from being a concert pianist, he is also a conductor. The late Manila critic Vilma Santiago-Felipe described him as "another gem in the Philippine music scene."

His first piano lessons were given by his mother. At the age of seven, he enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music as a personal scholar of Professor Feliza Custodio. From 1980 to 1985, he attended the Philippine High School for the Arts and the UST Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Professor Ernestina Crisologo and Professor Bernardino Custodio. In 1982, he won First Prize in the National Music Competitions for Young Artists (Piano Category). Two years later, he was runner-up in the Manila Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competitions.

Mr. Caces came to Graz, Austria in 1985 upon the invitation and arrangement of then Austrian Ambassador to the Philippines, Dr. Friedrich Posch. He studied with Professor Walter Kamper at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz. From 1986 to 1993, he was under the tutelage of world-renowned pianist Paul Badura-Skoda at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He finished his "Diplom" in 1989 and obtained his Master's Degree (Magister Artium) in Piano Performance in 1994 under Professor Roland Keller. He also studied Piano Chamber Music with Professor Georg Ebert. In 1999, he finished his "Diplom" in Conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna under the tutelage of Professor Uros Lajovic.

Mr. Caces has performed several solo recitals and various concerts in the Philippines, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.S.A. In 1989, he was soloist of the Hochschulsymphonieorchester in a concert performed at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. He was awarded the "Prix Decouverte" during the Festival International de Musique in Le Touquet, France in 1991. He has also played as soloist of the Metro Manila Community Orchestra, Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, the UST Symphony Orchestra and the Hannover Kammersymphonieorchester. In 2001, he was a featured soloist of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra during its first European tour.

He was a recipient of several scholarships, including the Makiling Academy and Research Institute for the Arts (MARIA), UST Conservatory of Music Alumni Association, the Music Promotion Foundation of the Philippines, Cultural Center of the Philippines Young Artist's Fund, and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research.

The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra

The PHILIPPINE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (PPO) is the country’s leading orchestra, widely regarded as one of the top musical ensembles in the Asia Pacific Region. The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra was formally inaugurated on May 15, 1973 as the CCP Philharmonic Orchestra and was initially intended to assist artists performing at the CCP Theater. The PPO’s first music director was Maestro Luis Valencia with Julian Quirit as concertmaster. In 1979, then First Lady Imelda R. Marcos asked Maestro Oscar C. Yatco to reorganize the orchestra. Three years later, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra was born with a new vision - to become a world-class orchestra. Three years later, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra was born with a new vision - to be ranked among the best in the world. The PPO has performed with many of the world’s most renowned conductors including Mendi Rodan, Piero Gamba, Yaacov Bergman and Nicholas Koch. It has also performed with some of the very best Filipino and foreign artists, including Cecile Licad, Jovianney Emmanuel Cruz, Lea Salonga, Van Cliburn, Renata Tebaldi, Judith Engel, Anthony Camden and jazz pioneer David Benoit. The PPO has gone on a very successful European tour and participated in the Asia Orchestra Week 2002 held at the Tokyo Opera City Hall. The orchestra performed in a hugely successful Charity Royal Command Concert in September 27, 2004 at the National Theater in Bangkok, Thailand, upon the invitation of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana, the older sister of His Majesty the King of Thailand. This was a project of the Fund for Classical Music Promotion, a nonprofit charity organization that gives out scholarships to young, talented and needy musicians to further study music, in cooperation with the Embassy of the Philippines and the Ministry of Culture of Thailand. The PPO has featured the Philippine premieres of works by Margaret Brouwer, Michael Tilson, and Mark Anthony Turnage, to name a few. In the past decade, the country's national orchestra has been led by Ruggero Barbieri and Eugene Castillo in the promotion, propagation, and nurturing of Filipino culture, expression, and heritage as its past Music Director and Principal Conductor.