The piece BOSES (voices) is an attempt to explore dichotomies among textures and timbres. The piece employs modal tonalities and utilizes timbre shifting, complex but fluid rhythms, capturing oriental musical expression of singing or chanting. The piece is inspired by the religious ritual “Maulod”, a song cycle commemorating the life of the Prophet Mohammed among Muslim groups of southern Philippines. This communal ritual evokes high-pitched melismatic singing. However, this piece is also very political. This work is dedicated to those critics who were killed voicing out their sentiments to the rampant corruption, incompetency, and extra judicial killings that has been happening in the last four years of the Duterte administration in the Philippines.

I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition at the University of the Philippines Diliman. I graduated Magna Cum Laude and the class valedictorian of the 2016 batch of music graduates. Engaging to a lot of musical activities helped me much to the development of my musical ability and most of them involved teaching. I compose, arrange and orchestrate and I also play piano in pubs and do gigs to support myself financially. I also joined in composition competitions, and submit works for call for scores and on October 2015, I won the 26th Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize during the 33rd Asian Composer’s League held in the Philippines. My goal is to serve my country by studying abroad and return home to share everything I’ve learned and experienced. I want to improve my skills not just in composition but I also want to grow and become a well-rounded musician and pedagogue. I aspire to teach and hone future generations of Filipino composers. I’m eager to be taught and I’m passionate in teaching. I’m keen to know what is taught and learned outside the Asian borders. I want to understand more about western culture, their thinking, and their processes. In my part, I’m also excited on how I can contribute and share to the world my views, my culture, and my music as well. Currently, I am taking my Master's in Music Composition at Michigan State University and I will be finishing this degree on May 2022. In my remaining year, I will have to deal with daily expenses (rent, food, books, etc) and coming from a third world country, the cost of living here in the U.S. is exponentially much more. If I get this scholarship, it will really help to support me in my financial needs.