JUSTIN JEE has Cebu roots, and his family here has reason to be proud of him. He is a senior at Yale University where he studies piano and chamber music. He is part of the Yale Glee Club and serves as its accompanist. Recently, he played at a gala in New York’s Rockefeller Center sponsored by the Yale Development Office.

Also, he has played in many solo shows and shared recitals to good reviews. Top prizes in various festivals and competitions further attest to his prowess as a most accomplished pianist.

Cebu had the opportunity of listening to him during a recital presented by the Arts Council in the Marcelo Fernan Press Center. All seats were taken before curtain time. Latecomers had to stand or sit on the side aisles, while others had SRO behind the last row.

The program had been beautifully designed, and Justin gave brief explanations about the pieces he played. First was Haydn’s Keyboard Sonata in C Major with three movements – allegro, adagio and allegro molto. Justin said it was composed when the grand piano as we know it did not exist yet.

Then came Romance for Piano in F Major by Brahms, followed by Dumka, for Piano in C Minor by Tschaikovsky. Hardly anyone left their seats during the interval for fear of losing them.

The second part opened with the delightful Bach Chaconne from his Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, as arranged by Brahms to be played on a piano by the left hand. That was quite a feat, and it brought the house down.

Three Pieces for Piano by Poulenc comprised the finale – Pastorale, Hymne and Toccata. There was much applause for this finale and for this evening’s complete repertoire. Justin obliged with three encores – two études by Chopin and Danza del Gaucho by Ginesterra.

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia was present on this occasion. She also attended the dinner that followed at the Casino Español hosted by the honorary consul of Romania Grand Benedicto and his pretty wife Genevieve.

Collecting kudos for their son and for being so supportive were Justin’s parents, Rodney and Fern Jee, who reside in California. Among those present were honorary consul of Belgium Enrique Benedicto and his wife Helena, their son Enrison Benedicto, and Cebu’s music genius Msgr. Rudy Villanueva.

Also present were Arts Council VIPs like president Petite Garcia, VPs Maxwell Espina and Vivina Yrastorza (event chair), and secretary Mariter Klepp.

Thanksgiving show

The council’s next musical event was also at the Marcelo Fernan Press Center auditorium.

This was a thanksgiving concert by the Mandaue Children’s Choir conducted by Dennis Sugarol. Quite spectacular, too, and well deserving of being declared champion at an international choral competition held in Korea. They have been cited with other awards here and abroad during the past few years.

There are quite a number of “old girls” from the Assumption Convent in Cebu. Five of them belong to High School Class 1959 –Chinggay de Veyra Utzurrum, Marilu Briones Chiongbian, Terry Escaño Manguerra, Corey Lacson Jakosalem and Maribel Moraza Backman who lives in Utah.

Maribel was in town recently, to spend time with her mother Doña Antonia Roig de Moraza. Her classmates took the opportunity to fete her at the Casino Español and fill her in on their class golden jubilee. That will be on Oct. 18 at the Assumption Convent in San Lorenzo Village, Makati City.

Maribel regrets she may not join but gave them best wishes for the success of the celebration. Of the four who reside in Cebu, it has been Chinggay and Marilu who have assiduously flown to Manila for regular meetings of the group, and to rehearse a dance number.

“We have a theme – ‘Shoes,’” says Chinggay. “As in, where have your shoes led you in the past 50 years?”

Well-heeled as Assumption “old girls” are regarded, it would be interesting to know where and how their steps may have led them, even if at times they may have had to go barefoot.

Golden jubilee

Speaking of golden anniversaries, Sony Noel Sievert breezed into town and got stranded here awaiting for the floods in Manila to subside in the area where she lives.

Sony’s mission in Cebu was to get in touch with former classmates of Class 1960 of Southern Islands Hospital School of Nursing to discuss their golden jubilee event in January 2010.

The school was phased out when government hospitals ceased to operate nursing schools, but the alumni on Southern Islands have remained a strong and civic-minded group.

Sony says they start celebrating on Jan. 22 with a thanksgiving Mass at the chapel of Santo Niño Village. A Hawaiian luau follows at the adjacent clubhouse.

It will be music of the 1960s on Jan. 23, a Saturday, at the Manila Room of the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu Hotel, plus a special showing of a DVD on the class’ “journey through life,” prepared by Father Galen Cortes of the Redemptorists. He is the son of alumni Cesar and Nila (nee Galindo) Cortes.

Culmination is on Sunday, January 24, at their own alumni center, with a Mass at 8 a.m., followed by brunch, a business meeting and registration for updates. In the evening, there will be a dinner dance at Casino Español de Cebu.

Sony has requested help in disseminating who their contact persons are, so that alumni all over the Philippines and abroad may plan to join the event. In Cebu, we have Ligaya Bataclan at 032-236-6937 and Delia Zosa Mediano at 032-263-6620. In Manila: Linda Ares Dulay at 02-642-4279 and Sony herself at 02-916-1215. They also have a contact person in Cagayan de Oro: Lindia Palapos Acenas.