Star Powerhouse

Now on its 20th year, the CCP Pasinaya: The Open House Festival, the country’s flagship multi-arts festival organized by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), ushers in this year’s National Arts Month with new components and venue partners. Bannering the theme “Paglikha sa Kinabukasan,” the milestone 20th edition of CCP Pasinaya celebrates two decades of artistic collaboration, creativity, and public engagement. Slated for February 7 and 8, 2026, the CCP Pasinaya expands to an additional regional venue in Roxas City, Capiz, adds Rizal Park Luneta as a new venue partner, Calle Wright as part of Paseo Museo and introduces a new component Paligsahan, which aims to broaden public participation and foster deeper appreciation of Philippine arts and culture. “We are pleased to expand the festival to additional partner venues across Metro Manila and the regions, enabling wider public participation in artmaking and appreciation. As CCP Pasinaya marks its 20th edition, the festival conti...

Sustaining the musical versatility of its 41st concert season, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) welcomes another year of artistic brilliance and majestic harmonies with CONCERT V: PRELUDI on January 16, 2026, 7:30 p.m., at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Makati City. The PPO, under the baton of the revered Maestro Grzegorz Nowak, beautifully reinterprets the timeless works of composers Jeffrey Ching, Frédéric Chopin, and Franz Liszt in Concert V: Preludi . Spanish-Filipino singer Andion Fernandez and piano prodigy Szymon Nehring are set to take the stage with the orchestra. A prelude to a new beginning This January, the fifth concert of the season warmly welcomes the audience with Ching’s Fenghuang Singing . Ching, the orchestra’s first composer-in-residence, crafted the melody for New Music in Sachsen-Anhalt (2019) to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. While blending motifs from East and West German hymns, Ching describes the destructi...

  The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) ushers in the Christmas season by illuminating the iconic facade of its Main Building with a striking Lubenas parol from Pampanga alongside a belen logo, forming a centerpiece that embodies the enduring spirit of the Christmas season for Filipinos. Titled “GABAY”, the display also highlights the building’s ongoing construction, making it a major component of the display. The façade lighting will be on display from 6pm to 5am, from December 16, 2025 to January 6, 2026. This year’s Christmas facade lighting references the early Filipino belief that a star-shaped lantern (parol) guides churchgoers to the dawn masses (Simbang Gabi). The light display is directed by CCP Trustee and Gawad CCP Awardee for Lighting Design Felix “Monino” Duque. It was conceptualized and designed in collaboration with culture and arts officer and lighting designer Jericho Pagana. “I wanted to have one clear element, which is the logo of the belen. It serves as t...

Every piña fiber, abacá , and jusi fabric woven into a barong Filipino carries the struggles of being acknowledged as the Philippine national dress for men. Along with them, the nation’s fight for acceptance and freedom is reflected in patterns drenched in Philippine culture and tradition.  “The barong Filipino overcame many obstacles, the biggest of which is the Filipinos’ own colonial mentality,” said cultural advocate and Gawad CCP awardee Dr. Nicanor Tiongson in his special lecture at Costume Laboratory (COSLAB) 2, the Costume Design and Construction Laboratory for Philippine Theater workshop held last November 17 to 23, at the De La Salle - College of Saint Benilde. Through its Production Design and Technical Services Division, the CCP conducts ladderized workshops and lectures on the national dress with COSLAB. COSLAB started with the Traje de Mestiza from the 1890s to 1920s.  COSLAB 2 features the baro - the men’s shirt covering the period 1800s, 1920s and 1970s. COSLAB...

  Clothing began as a necessity – protection from the elements, a tool for survival. But over the centuries it transformed into one of humanity’s most powerful aesthetic languages, allowing humans, particularly women, to express identity, emotion, and artistry through what they wear. For renowned fashion designer Josie Natori, being woman-centered in her work helps her highlight the intricacies of women’s personalities through clothing.  “I’ve always said my biggest asset is being a woman, second is being Asian. That’s inherent in the work we do, where a woman is able to express herself through the kind of clothes that we make. I think women have many moods – you can go very simplistic, you can go from just black to a lot of colors – it depends on what she feels. And that’s part of it, because fashion is a way of self-expression,” said the renowned fashion designer. Natori is one of the earliest and most successful Filipino‑American designers, and one of very few immigrant wom...