August 2021. For the past two weeks, I have been watching the 2020 Olympics (actually held in 2021) on television. My mind has taken me way back to April 1977, when the Philippine Madrigal Singers performed in Japan.
Within three months of choirmaster Prof. Andrea Veneracion inviting me to join the Philippines’ premier choir, I found myself on a Philippine Airlines special flight to Tokyo as a member of the Philippine President’s official party for his state visit to Japan. The Madz (as the choir is fondly called) were informed of the trip just five days prior to departure. We had to quickly learn and memorise a set of Japanese songs, including Kimigayo, the Japanese national anthem, played during every Olympic gold medal ceremony for a Japanese athlete.
The Japan trip was a milestone for me, as it marked the first of ten international tours I would make with the Philippine Madrigal Singers. I was most fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to see 28 countries on four continents within six years—all for free! Well, except for the enormous time and hard work required of a Madz.
I was filled with a mix of excitement and anxiety. Our Tokyo schedule was heavy, and we were on-call practically 24/7 (long before the term became a business buzzword). There were performances at the Akasaka Palace for top government officials, at Hotel Okura for the bigwigs of major Japanese global corporations, at the World Trade Fair in Tokyo, and even at a large department store. We were almost like a jukebox, which fortunately the Madz could ably handle by pulling from its impressive repertoire. However, this was particularly daunting for new members like me, especially since some performances were aired on live TV. Talk about instantly mastering the art of lip-syncing. Where were you, Milli Vanilli and Britney Spears?
But nothing would beat the command performance at the Imperial Palace for Emperor Hirohito. To our amazement, he shook hands with each one of us after our short program. We were told by our Japanese aides that holding the hands of commoners is something the Emperor does only in exceptional cases. So, we joked about never washing our hands again.
To say that my Tokyo experience was eventful is an understatement. There’s so much more to tell, including going around Tokyo in the middle of the night trying to retrieve my passport from a Philippine commercial attaché; having takeout McDonald’s for lunch al fresco in a Japanese garden; a very late (2 a.m.) private dinner at the Akasaka Palace with Imelda Marcos keeping us company; the Hotel New Otani staff being so super-efficient that my luggage went ahead of me to the airport; a newly bought Sony TV set that arrived after me; and the list goes on. I may not have had a camera with me on the Japan trip, but somehow, I have managed to retain a few photographic memories of these episodes. Yet, they are stories for another day.
Five years later, in March 1982, I’d be landing again in Tokyo, this time at its newly opened international airport in Narita. The older airport is Haneda. I had an overnight layover on my way to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California (USC) to earn a Master’s in Systems Management under a United Nations Fellowship Grant.
Rewind to April 1974. It was at USC’s Hancock Auditorium that the University of the Philippines Concert Chorus, of which I was a member of the touring group, had its historic first-ever international performance. The universities and colleges concert tour segment, covering nine states, was the prelude to the fourth Lincoln Center International Choral Festival in New York City and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Eight years later, I would be returning to the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center when the Madz were invited to be one of the Festival Choirs of the 1982 Choruses of the World.
Fast forward to April 1984. Over the two years that I was completing my graduate studies, I was also a member of the USC Concert Choir. It would be among the core groups forming the Olympics Choir for the upcoming Los Angeles Olympic Games in July and August 1984. I had already finished my studies in March of that year, and my US J-1 visa was set to expire in April. Since I was carrying an official government passport with my United Nations Fellowship, requesting a visa extension was virtually out of the question. Sadly, my Olympics moment was not meant to be. Oh well, at least I was at the Olympic stadium a few times, since it’s just a couple of blocks from campus. It’s where the USC Trojans play home games.
One key success factor of the LA Olympics was the use of existing housing facilities for athletes’ accommodations. The university housing at USC, along with crosstown rival UCLA, formed the Olympic Village. Throughout my two-year stay, I had lived in one dorm and three apartments, all university owned. I often wondered which athletes had slept on ‘my’ beds and whether they had won any medals.
Now, I live in Toronto. Each springtime reminds me of sakura, or cherry blossoms, and my first visit to Japan. The first time I encountered the word was as the title of a song. It was one of the songs the Madz performed in the presence of Emperor Hirohito. I usually photograph sakura in High Park, surrounded by the fragrance of cherry blossoms, and I am always reminded of the song. My sakura photographic collection grows each year. Hopefully, my “collection” of Olympic host cities will continue to grow as well. The Tokyo Stadium was the first-ever Olympic venue I had seen. Hence, I’ve been to a total of eighteen Olympic host cities.
Biography
Leo Mascariñas could best be described as a Renaissance man, a person embracing universality whose interests and talents span the sciences and the arts. This citizen of the world is a Mensa-certified genius, a scholar, a software engineer, an educator, a photographic imagineer, a bass-baritone, a world traveler, a polyglot, an author, an archivist, a word game creator, an ambassador of goodwill, a community volunteer, a library benefactor, and a multiple brain tumor survivor.
He has sung with several choirs from four countries, including the Philippine Madrigal Singers, the University of the Philippines Concert Chorus, the University of Southern California Concert Choir, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Toronto Opera-in-Concert Chorus. His travels have taken him to forty-one countries across five continents.