PH Embassy in Brunei Celebrates National Arts Month with Music Therapy Workshop

Participants of the Music Therapy workshop pose together with Philippine Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam H.E. Marian Jocelyn R. Tirol-Ignacio and Embassy personnel after a successful lecture-workshop session with music therapist and faculty member of the St. Paul University College of Music and the Performing Arts MS. Ma. Solinda Garcia-Bautista. (Brunei PE photo)  

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 08 March 2024 – The Philippine Embassy in Brunei Darussalam commemorated National Arts Month 2024 by hosting Music to Heal II: A Music Therapy Workshop in partnership with St. Paul University (SPU) Manila’s Music Therapy Department of the College of Music and the Performing Arts on 26 February 2024. The music workshop was also supported by Yippy Tunes Music School, headed by its founder, Deon Ong.

In her welcoming remarks, Philippine Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Marian Jocelyn Tirol-Ignacio highlighted the power of music to heal and thanked SPU Manila’s College of Music and the Performing Arts Dean Raul Sunico and Associate Dean Sister Theresa Asencio for making the workshop possible.

The first of its kind music therapy workshop in Brunei was facilitated by Ms. Ma. Solinda Garcia-Bautista, a classical-crossover pianist and drummer, group drumming facilitator, music therapist, researcher and faculty member from the Music Therapy Department of SPU.

The workshop held an Interactive Therapy Talk on the therapeutic effects of sound and music to the human body and mind, followed by the Experiential Rhythmic Circle and Beat Burnout Session, which taught burnout and stress management through music. Ms. Bautista-Solinda was assisted by Yippy Tune Music School music educator and SPU MA in Music Therapy student, Ms. Maria Cecilia B. Algery-Rasonable.

After the success of the inaugural Music to Heal concert workshop in 2023, this year’s Music to Heal II interactive workshop shared music therapy techniques and principles with the medical and education community in Brunei Darussalam. It was widely attended by over 60 healthcare professionals, musicians, members of the academe, and administrators from schools and higher learning institutions in the Sultanate who actively participated in the lecture workshop. END

Philippine Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Marian Jocelyn R. Tirol-Ignacio gives her opening remarks. (Brunei PE photo)  

Music to Heal II participants engage in the Beat Burnout exercise as Ms. Ma. Solinda Garcia-Bautista facilitates the Experiential Rhythmic Circle during the second segment of the lecture-workshop. (Brunei PE photo)  

For more information, visit https://www.bruneipe.dfa.gov.ph, https://www.philippine-embassybrunei.org or https://www.facebook.com/PHinBrunei/, https://twitter.com/PHinBrunei or https://www.instagram.com/phinbrunei/.