Santo Tomas Singers bring crowd to tears

Friday, Jul. 18, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Santo Tomas Singers filled the Judge Memorial Catholic High School auditorium with song and memories July 13 during a benefit concert for the Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Catholic Church building fund.

The group is the only choir in the world to have won the Luciano Pavarotti Trophy twice, and has won 75 top prizes in worldwide competitions. The choir members are students and alumni of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines, a private Catholic institution that is the oldest university in Asia, founded in 1611.

Many of those attending the concert were from Utah’s Filipino community, called Misang Bayan.

The gathering  was “a manifestation of the hospitality that you find in the culture,” said Manny Evangelista, who joined family and friends at the concert.

The choir’s songs brought back many memories, he added, particularly the traditional “Usahay,” which was sung in Tagalog. 

“It used to be a melody that the old ladies from the tribe sang, and I used to know the lyrics growing up,” Evangelista said, adding that another of the songs, “Tuwing Umuulan at Kapiling Ka,” was written by a man he went to school with, Ryan Cayabyab.

Still, it was the choir’s last number, “America the Beautiful,” that had a particular impact, said Evangelista, who has lived in the United States most of his life and raised his family here. “It made me cry. For a choir from another country to sing that, it was melancholic and poignant and meaningful.”

Dr. Rey Roa, who helped organize the event, also was brought to tears by the song. “America is so diverse,” he said. “I’m proud of my country, but I’m also proud to be an American, so when they sang ‘America the Beautiful’ I was crying.”

The concert benefited St. Therese Parish, which is paying off the debt incurred after rebuilding the church, which was gutted by a fire in 2010. That was one of the reasons that Andy Airriess attended with his wife, Giselle Airriess.

“I wanted to support Saint Therese’s building fund, and when you can get out and hear such wonderful music” it is an added benefit, he said.

Airriess had other connections with the concert: his Knights of Columbus council supported Father Joseph Frez, St. Therese pastor, as the priest went through the seminary; and Airriess’ parents and other family members were internees at the University of Santo Tomas during World War II. 

The University of Santo Tomas Singers entertained not only with Filipino songs but also with Latin hymns and Broadway songs, to the delight of the crowd, which almost filled the gymnasium.

Fr. Frez, a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas’s College of Engineering, said he was overwhelmed by the community’s response, not only to the singers but in their generosity toward the building fund.