MANILA, Philippines - Vancouver-based pianist and pedagogue Marguerite Echaus has a lot to say about teaching and what she thinks is an ideal music teacher.

?It?s a great feeling to know that the student who started with me at age four keep coming back just to learn and play more music,? she told the Inquirer. ?That means that I succeeded in instilling love for music for students even if later in their lives they chose other careers.?

So what is her idea of a good music teacher?

I asked this question when I learned that a music teacher from an arts school on the slope of Mt. Makiling shouted at a top music scholar on the day of her graduation, to say that she (the student) would never amount to anything no matter how hard she tried. The student was one of the few prize-winning students in the school and whose playing impressed the country?s leading pianist.

Replied Echaus: ?I would presume that a music teacher has a genuine love for music. She should communicate that love to her students by being an understanding and compassionate person. Some students may not be that talented but the fact that they want to learn I consider a big responsibility on my part as a teacher.?

One teacher she will always remember is noted keyboard pedagogue Bela Nagy, who Echaus remembers as the pianist who edited the Beethoven sonatas. When she was still in Washington, DC, Nagy would commute from Boston to her place to teach her until 10 in the evening.

?What I like about him was his honesty and humility and his ability to communicate with people. His sense of information is at par with students? and he doesn?t talk down to them. He also understands the fact that studying music is not the single aim that matters but the human relationship that goes with it.?

Echaus, along with Martha Brickman, J. Greg Zuniega and Priscilla de la Fuente Sison from St. Scholastica?s, will be heard in a special fund-raising concert on Saturday, July 19, at St. Cecilia?s Hall.

Award-winning

A winner of three prestigious European music competitions, Brickman has performed in major music centers in Europe and North America, including the Carnegie Hall.

Even as audiences generally go for solo concerts, Echaus shares the joy of ensemble playing, which is the attraction at the St. Cecilia?s Hall concert.

?Ensemble playing requires that you listen not just to yourself but to other pianists as well,? she said.

For this concert, classical guitarist Hanh Nguyen will be unable to perform as she was diagnosed with cancer.

However, she has generously donated her CDs for sale during the concert. All profits will be donated to Sr. Baptista Battig Music Foundation, Inc. and Loyola School of Theology.

Titled ?A Classic Evening of Piano Duo and Guitar,? the concert will benefit the special projects of the Sr. Baptista Battig Music Foundation of St. Scholastica?s College and the Loyola School of Theology of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Call 5268080 (St. Scholastica?s College, Music department) and 4266138, 4266431-35 local 3603 (Loyola School of Theology).