Leo P. Olobia
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About the CD:
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I have un upcoming CD eintitled "Piano
Potpourri", a selection of my favorite classical, broadway and
standard music. It is currently being edited and mastered in Vancouver,
Canada. As soon as the final product is released it will be posted here for
your listening enjoyment.
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about leo...
Leo was born and raised in Tacloban City, Leyte, Philippines where he
received his first piano lessons at the age of 7. This turned out to be the
turning point of his career in music. He recalls the day he first heard a
piano playing in his neighbor’s house: “...it was the greatest sound I’ve
ever heard and at that point I knew I wanted to be a pianist.”
His parents enrolled him under Mrs. Peñaranda, and after years of study with his first piano teacher, he was introduced to a prominent piano teacher, Ms Salud Larraga. She was recommended by former First Lady Imelda Marcos, so he could undergo classical training in preparation for a scholarship in Makiling, Laguna, where young prodiges studied.
Salud Larraga became his piano mentor. She admired Leo’s great sight reading speed and technical mastery that she assigned him difficult pieces. He embarked on a disciplined program of Bach, Chopin and Liszt repertoire for his recitals. At the age of 13, he learned in a month Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor for his recital, while studying for his next concerto – Tschaikovsky’s Piano Concerto in Bb Minor. His mentor awarded him a Full Piano Scholarship for exemplary talent when he declined his scholarship at Makiling.
While studying at the Leyte National High School, he was awarded the Model Student Award by the Children’s Museum Library, Inc, in Quezon City. He later ventured to the University of the Philippines in Diliman to pursue not music, but Economics. After 4 years of study, he graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Economics and was on the Dean’s List for high academic standing. At the university, he always found time to practice his scales and pieces at the College of Music where he attended numerous student recitals. He mentions: “Those were one of my leisure activities which further enriched my appreciation of music. I was not only educated more but the lavish refreshments they served fed me as well.”
After graduating in 1990, he became a professor at the Arts and Science Department in UP-Visayas, Tacloban, where he taught General Economics, Macroeconomics, International Trade and Economic History. It was a year of academic indulgence but he always had time to study with Ms. Larraga, in preparation for his Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor recital in 1992. After a year of teaching, his passion for music grew intensely until he finally resigned from his teaching job at UP. He reckons: “It was very difficult for me to leave the academe at such short notice but I had to fulfill my destiny. Music was always on my mind even when I was explaining economic theories in class. It was an inevitable choice.”
He left for Manila to set an audition for a cruise ship job which he got immediately. Leo is presently cruising the Carribean, playing the piano aboard Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas.