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Ryan Cayabyab’s 'MaestroClass,'

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1763181863348MC 1.JPG" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="Ryan Cayabyab in &#x27;MestroClass.&#x27; Handout"/>Ryan Cayabyab in &#x27;MestroClass.&#x27; Handout</div>MANILA -- When National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab opened &quot;MaestroClass,&quot; the first-ever concert held at the Proscenium Theater, the house lights remained at full glow. On stage: a classroom. The audience, the students. A blackboard projected lessons and lyrics that would anchor the evening&#x27;s themes. A stunning Steinway concert grand piano served as the Maestro&#x27;s desk. The class was in session.Cayabyab’s first lesson of the night was a single word: strophic. In musicology, it refers to a song where the melody repeats while the words change. He demonstrated this with an excerpt of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” — the anti-war song by Peter, Paul and Mary that cycles through life, death, and the inevitability of war. In Filipino folk songs, “Leron Leron Sinta” fits the bill. But the term could just as easily describe Cayabyab&#x27;s own artistic life — a six-decade career built on constant reinvention over a familiar, generous core.The venue itself reflects a longstanding relationship. “It&#x27;s fitting to have Mr. C, a National Artist, celebrate Filipino talent here — not just once, but in a series,” says Rockwell Land vice president for marketing Tracey Castillo, noting Cayabyab&#x27;s presence from the theater&#x27;s test shows to this opening night. By opening the Proscenium Theater, Cayabyab signaled the kind of musicians the space hopes to host, those who achieve the highest levels of craft without losing the heart and humanity that draw audiences in.That intimacy was palpable. The Proscenium — the first theater in the Philippines designed with natural acoustics — takes its name from the Greek term for the frame through which an audience views a performance. Yet that night, the boundary dissolved. Every note arrived with clarity, and the space invited participation. Audience members beside me were singing along — not shyly, but with full encouragement from the stage. At one point, Martin Nievera leaned forward and playfully extended the microphone toward the crowd. For a split second, I wondered if the person next to me might actually grab it. The moment revealed how both the 780-seater venue narrowed the distance, and the artists filled that nearness with humor and warmth.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1763181834284MC2.JPG" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="Ryan Cayabyab with Martin Nievera. Handout"/>Ryan Cayabyab with Martin Nievera. Handout</div>Across decades, Cayabyab&#x27;s projects have shifted in both subject matter and form. The subject matter alone spans from Manila&#x27;s streets with “Limang Dipang Tao” and “Mamang Kutsero&quot; to yearning love songs like “Bawat Sandali” and “How Can I,” to intimate portraits of his wife Emmy in “Araw, Gabi” and “Sometime, Somewhere,” even to the cheeky “Da Coconut Nut,” a playful staple of Cayabyab&#x27;s catalog which has been sung by youth groups across generations — from Smokey Mountain in the 1990s to BINI in the 2020s. The forms have been equally varied, from pop songs to film scores like &quot;Paraisong Parisukat,&quot; and full-scale musicals including &quot;Rama Hari&quot; and &quot;Katy!&quot;The evening&#x27;s special guests felt like star pupils returning to honor their beloved teacher. Nievera, whom Cayabyab has known since childhood as the son of his friend Bert, delivered performances that were steady and confident, his presence as comforting as the peanut butter milkshake he makes that Cayabyab swears is the best he&#x27;s ever tasted. The most affecting moment came with “The Best Gift,” a song about fathers and sons. During rehearsals, Cayabyab recalled, Nievera cried while practicing it. After the performance, Nievera quietly shared, “This is the first time I sang this without my dad.”<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1763181799385MC3.JPG" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Ryan Cayabyab with Lani Misalucha. Handout</div>Lani Misalucha showcased her remarkable vocal range, leaping from jazz standards in excerpts from the &quot;Katy!&quot; musical to an impromptu Mozart&#x27;s “Queen of the Night” with technical brilliance and playful ease. She brought emotional depth to “Araw, Gabi” and “Magbalik Ka Na Mahal” and later delivered a radiant “Paraiso.” The Ryan Cayabyab Singers, fresh from their US tour with Cayabyab, anchored the evening with tight, dynamic harmonies. An a cappella “Kailan” revealed the precision and purity of his vocal writing. All the artists shared an easy rapport with their Maestro, trading stories, laughter, and musical cues, revealing the full breadth of his songbook while radiating the humanity and openness that make the music feel alive even as new voices make them their own.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1763181766545MC4.JPG" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="The Ryan Cayabyab Singers. Handout"/>The Ryan Cayabyab Singers. Handout</div>We live in a country marked by so many crises that resignation has become a habit. It&#x27;s become commonplace to ask, “What can we possibly do? Ano na ang gagawin natin?” In “Better World,” Cayabyab writes: “I dream that one day our songs in some way / Will bring a bright tomorrow / Full of love / Full of hope / Full of joy.”It is a quiet but powerful answer, one that echoes the words of another maestro, Leonard Bernstein: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” &quot;MaestroClass&quot; is a lesson not only in music but in living. Watching Cayabyab perform, you don&#x27;t simply walk away knowing more about his compositions or the mechanics of musicology. You leave with a sense of how grace and craft might coexist in a single life –- a quiet rebuttal to the familiar myth that true genius must be tortured, angry, or apart from the world. The two hours went by quickly. The Maestro closed by standing up from the piano, a seat he had occupied for the entire evening, to sing a reprise of “&#x27;Till There Was You.” He and his guest artists bowed to a standing ovation. The crowd chanted for more and he obliged with “Kumukutikutap,” his answer to his friend Jose Mari Chan this Christmas season — a perfect example of that first lesson, strophic. What a way to close the inaugural &quot;MaestroClass.&quot; Class dismissed.<div>The &quot;MaestroClass&quot; concert series will have two more shows on November 15 and 16 at Rockwell’s Proscenium Theater.</div>

At the Proscenium Theater, National Artist Ryan Cayabyab turned concertgoers into students during the opening night of 'MaestroClass.' More than a performance, the evening was a lesson in artistry, humanity, and the enduring power of song.

At the Proscenium Theater, National Artist Ryan Cayabyab turned concertgoers into students during the opening night of ' MaestroClass .' More than a performance, the evening was a lesson in artistry, humanity, and the enduring power of song.

Concert review: In Ryan Cayabyab’s 'MaestroClass,' you learn about music and living

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Concert review: In Ryan Cayabyab’s 'MaestroClass,' you learn about music and living

Kara Vibal Guioguio

Published Nov 15, 2025 12:47 PM PHT

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concert review

Ryan Cayabyab

Martin Nievera

Lani Misalucha

Proscenium Theater

Rockwell

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