In Search of the Great Luis C. Valencia (Violinist)
In late 1936, Luis C. Valencia came to the attention of Austrian violin pedagogue Gottfried Feist—it was mainly due to his triumph in Manila in a contest that would determine who would represent the Philippines in the 1937 Eugene Ysaÿe Violin Competition, named after the Belgian violin virtuoso. Valencia, then under the tutelage of Ernesto Vallejo, topped the competition—thereby earning a trip to Brussels. Luis Valencia was born in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija. In his teens, he went to Manila and enrolled at the UP Conservatory of Music, studying the violin under the freshly returned-from-U.S.-studies Ernesto Vallejo. In between, he became concertmaster of the Manila Symphony Orchestra under Austro-Hungarian conductor Alexander Lippay. Incidentally, it was Valencia who was one of the early popularizers of Kreisler pieces in Manila--Playing it in salon musicale and evening performance (soiree) around the city. In 1937, upon arrival in Europe for the competition, he went straight to the Vi...