Renowned ethno-musicologist Priscilla Magdamo-Abraham will give a lecture on The Art of the Visayan Song for the Albert Faurot Lecture Series for Culture and the Arts on Dec. 1st at 10 am at the SU College of Performing & Visual Arts Music Sala.
Magdamo-Abraham completed her Bachelor’s degrees in Biology and in Music at Silliman University, and her Masters in Voice & Ethnomusicology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. She is a certified McClosky voice technician.
As an active professional musician, she has performed, recorded, and toured internationally with professional choral and chamber ensembles such as The Gregg Smith Singers, The New York Vocal Ensemble, and the John Biggs Consort.
Her extensive collection of Visayan folk songs and traditional music of ethnic groups of southern Philippines is a source for performers, composers, and arrangers.
She introduces Visayan music, as well as Philippine folk tales and myths to schoolchildren in the US and abroad. Her arrangements of folk songs have been included in the international touring repertoire of several Philippine choral ensembles.
She has returned to the Philippines several times to conduct workshops in singing, and promoting traditional music in public schools, private colleges, church organizations, and teachers’ conferences.
She and husband, Frederick Abraham, live in Vermont where she teaches privately, continues to arrange Visayan songs, and occasionally performs traditional music in schools and community gatherings.
The lecture series, named after Dr. Albert Faurot, is a regular offering of the SU Cultural Affairs Committee, and is free for the public. (PR)
