Anime songs thrill millennials, Gen Z in SLU orchestra concert

By Pigeon Lobien

BAGUIO CITY -- It started of course with the oldest. Voltes V, that set the tune for the Saint Louis University Concert Orchestra’s fifth staging of the O.V.A. – O.S.T. at the SLU Center for the Culture and the Arts Friday.

Generation X-ers were into the mecharobot who saved earth from the invading Bozanian empire at the twilight of the Marcos era.   

It was followed with of course one of the earliest animes that hit the Philippine shores in the post-EDSA years, Dragonball Z’s original soundtrack which of course I’m familiar with.

“I think, we’re out of place here, “ said Dr. Mark Ventura, who called me to sit beside him when he saw me upon arrival at the SLU Center for the Culture and the Arts.

With Sailor Moon and Howl’s Flying Moving Castle, I already got lost.  Fairytail is not my cup of tea and so was Pokemon, which is kind of juvenile (who says anime is not juvenile), which concluded the first half of the performance.

And the second half was more frustrating for us older peeps even if the crowd, a full house, we’re singing with the orchestra, with conductor Ethan Ventura goading them to sing along.

I kinda know Zelda, but the next, was outlandish for me.Yuyu Hakusho? Oh it’s Ghost Fighter which was a monster hit in the late 90.  I watched the whole series in less than five days in the late 2000s, way after my niece, who is now an engineer, saw its conclusion.  

And Naruto brought the tailend, the en core for the performance which came less than two months after Ventura re-cast the orchestra which was decimated with the graduation of more than half of the 60 or so members.

“Naubos,” cried Ventura after the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra show at the University of Baguio in early September, the first for the PPO after their 1988 show (which I saw with a friend).

But the PPO sortie here, that included a workshop, helped Ventura reboot the orchestra  that barely two months, he was able to assemble 65 young musicians – most are from SLU’s Senior High School - for a show.

“Malupit ‘yan, kahit isang maling tono sa 65 na musicians alam niya. Kahit half tone,” murmured the proud father.

“The one on cello is Jomol’s kid,” he intimated. “Colleen?” I said quietly. I remember her as a little girl in 2004 when I was putting to bed the Cordillera Today which her dad, lawyer Jose Molintas, co-owns with uncle, the late Raul Molintas.

With Naruto as the final song after conductor Ventura’s short talk to thank those who made the show possible, and urging the viewer to watch more SLU performances in the future free or ticketed, because “it is much cheaper than movies at (SM).”

And for the second encore, Slam Dunk, which drew another applause from the hundreds, or more than a thousand, who came an braved the circuitous route to the SLU CCA, with the hospital and Chinese Temple entrances closed due to the construction of the hospital extension. PML

BRAVO! Conductor Ethan Ventura (with back against the camera, leads the new 65-strong Saint Louis University Concert Orchestra  during the OVA OST 5 performance at the SLU – Center for the Culture and the Arts last Oct. 26.  

Fronting the camera on cello is Colleen Molintas, a scion of one of the Ibaloy families in Baguio and Benguet.