Lone Philippine representative Jascha Obieta earned international recognition as he placed second at the recently concluded World Bach Competition 2020.
Hosted by the Colorado-based Boulder Bach Festival, which provides a global platform to musicians from all around the world through the online solo World Bach Competition, the organization conducted a series of high-quality performances and educational opportunities to celebrate the German composer and musician Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach.
With the principle that music is more important now in a pandemic-stricken world, the contest welcomed and featured musicians in high school, university, community, and professional levels to perform Bach compositions through their instrument of choice: percussion, brass, woodwinds, strings, keyboard instruments, plucked instruments, non-traditional instruments, non-classical instruments, non-Western instruments, acoustic and electric instruments.
Obieta, a 20-year-old third-year Music Production student from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts, participated in the University Student Solo Instrument-Keyboard and Plucked Instruments Category.
His winning performance featured Prelude & Fugue in C# Major BWV 848 and Prelude & Fugue in F# Major BWV 884, both taken from The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of sets of preludes composed for solo shows.
In 2019, he placed second in the Piano Teachers’ Guild of the Philippines’ Romantic and Kasilag Competition Category B2. He was likewise a semifinalist in the 2018 NAMCYA Junior Piano Category and 2019 Kayserburg Youth Piano Competition.
The World Bach Competition was Obieta’s first international tilt and win.
“I had a natural inclination for Bach’s music and when I found out about the competition, I just told myself, ‘Okay, I’ll go ahead, do this, and move on from here’. I really just participated for fun and did not expect much. I learned to not take things too seriously. Joining is a win in itself,” Obieta shared.
Obieta likewise hopes to inspire his fellow music aspirants. “No need to worry about getting better – just play and play,” he shared. “Learning slowly but surely helps a lot. See to it that you have given everything and your mind and body will do the rest.”
Hilda Huang (Piano) from the USA and Reuben Johnson (Piano) from Australia shared the first place under the University Student Solo Instrument-Keyboard and Plucked Instruments Category.
Joining Obieta in second place was Jiajun Lai (Piano) from USA, who also bagged the Audience Favorite Award.
Obieta’s winning performance is available on view on the official YouTube channel of Boulder Bach Festival at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6c5N_aa6Ss.