Pangasinan: Residents and visitors will be treated anew with free music from the finest orchestras in the municipality of Basista during the Orchestra Festival on March 21. "One of the good things about the Orchestra Festival is that they're empowered. They get more attention, especially with social media," said Basista Mayor Jolly Resuello in an interview on Tuesday. Seven homegrown orchestra groups will perform all at once with their best pieces and choreography during the festival along Magsaysay Road in Barangay Poblacion, he added.
According to Philippines News Agency, the orchestras prioritize the festival despite their busy schedules, especially these peak months when there are many celebrations in villages and localities even outside the province. "They have a lot of gigs, in other cities and towns. Sometimes, they're in Manila. Sometimes, they play in other provinces," he added.
Launched in 2016, the Orchestra Festival was created to promote orchestral music to the public, especially to the younger generation. "Simple lang ang hangarin namin, magbigay kasiyahan sa ating mga kababayan, masilayan ang kanilang mga ngiti habang nakikinig ng musika dahil noong pandemic, ito ay nawala, sila ay natakot, hindi nakakalabas ng bahay," Resuello said.
In 2019, the local government unit, with help from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, conducted a "cultural heritage mapping" to trace the origins of the town's orchestras and discovered that at least eight of Basista's orchestras could trace their roots to the Caranto Family, which established the Paradise Orchestra in the 1950s.
In the 1950s, the only musical instruments the Paradise Group played were snare drum, wooden guitar, "tambol," (drum) and the baho de arko, which measured 5x2 feet, the biggest and tallest string instrument they ever had. The group provided live music during weddings, fiestas, and Christmas at a time when there were still no sound systems and electric instruments in the town.
Since the band members were all from Sitio Paraiso (formerly known as Tambolong) in Barangay Dumpay, people started calling the town the home of orchestras and musicians. "As the Caranto clan grew, the family members and relatives put up their own orchestras all over Basista," Resuello said.
The homegrown orchestras in the town are Caranto Orchestra, Esting Caranto Orchestra, Rudy Mac Orchestra, Joe Caranto Orchestra, Zisoy Caranto Harmony Orchestra, Don Podring De Guzman Orchestra, and Ben Caranto Orchestra. Resuello said the celebration was institutionalized through an ordinance. "Here in Basista, there are really a lot of musicians here, a lot of great singers, trumpets, drums players, and a lot more," he said.
