24 July 2014 - For the few Filipinos in India, the standing ovation given to Filipina pianist Alexandra Minoza for her outstanding performance in “Fete de la Musique” held in India’s southern city of Chennai was a rare and welcome treat and a fitting tribute to the Filipino’s world-renowned musical talent.

Ms. Minoza, a pianist based in the port city of Chennai, performed to a roused audience during the grand finale of the music festival which was organized by Goethe Institute last June 21. Ms. Minoza, the only Filipino musician in the concert, awed the audience as she set the concert off to a daring start with her daring and powerful rendition of Debussy’s masterpiece “Claire de Lune,” followed by one of the most technically challenging of Frederic Chopin’s pieces, “Ballade No. 1.”

The concert was capped by Ms. Minoza’s performance of mixed and matched tunes with two other Indian pianists, ending with “Vande Mataram” and Robert Schumanns’s “Kinderszenen” to a resounding applause from the audience.

Born in the Philippines, Alexandra Minoza started learning the piano at the age of seven and had her orchestral debut at the age of nine with the Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra. She recently graduated with a Master of Music in Advance Piano Performance at the Royal College of Music in London and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore in Singapore. Currently, she is a Piano Faculty at the KM Music Conservatory also known as A.R. Rahman’s music school in Chennai, India. END