On April 29 and 30 the past month, the Calayan Minstrels, one of CEFI’s cultural groups, was treated to a two-day choral workshop conducted by no less than Dr. Ed “Kuya Ed” Manguiat, the founder and choir director of the internationally renowned UP Singing Ambassadors (UPSA). He brought along ten UPSA members who gamely blended with the excited Minstrels as Dr. Ed took up with the group additional exercises in stretching, breathing and vocalizations to achieve homogeneity in their voices. He polished existing repertoires of the choir, and added fresh interpretations to them, much to the delight of the members and the TCM trainor and choirmaster, Mr. Carlo Villanueva and the advisers, Dr. Karen Cusi and Dr. Susee Calayan, who were present at the workshop. The Calayan Minstrels learned two new songs and sang them under the baton of Dr. Ed before the workshop ended. 

The workshop is just the start of a series of trainings that management plans to hold for the TCM, to further hone the members’ vocal skills and prepare them for national and eventually international exposures. If plans do not miscarry, the TCM will have another session with Dr. Ed in October.