Prize-winning composer Nilo B. Alcala II, whose traces his roots to Virac, earned another honor last week, this time from his alma mater, the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) College of Development Communication.
Alcala was recognized by the CDC Alumni Association as among the four Distinguished Alumni for 2024 during the 106th UPLB Loyalty Day and Alumni Homecoming Celebration last Oct. 7, 2024.
Named as Distinguished Alumnus in Culture and Arts for Development and a recipient of The Outstanding UPLB Alumnus Award (TOUAA), the composer highlighted the impact of music and the arts in preserving and promoting indigenous cultures.
In a social media post, Alcala said the recognition came as a surprise since his major in UPLB was not in music at all.
But he emphasized that DevCom taught him the importance of advocacy in one’s art, the value of using art to lend visibility to the marginalized, the power of having a clear message, the significance of innovation in creative pursuits or output, the noteworthiness of scholarly research as backbone of one’s creative output, the cruciality of respecting cultures or subcultures quite different from your own, the endless potential and benefits of collaboration, the rewards of having a teachable attitude especially in collaboration, the value of truthful communication with others and yourself, and most importantly, the impact of cultivating real, lasting, and meaningful relationships.
The 2019 The American Prize Winner in Composition, is the first Philippine-born composer to be commissioned by Grammy winner Los Angeles Master Chorale, and also to receive the Aaron Copland House Residency Award.
Alcala likewise received a number of recognitions, including the 2009 POLYPHONOS Young Composer Award and the Young Composer Award from the Asian Composers League, won Best Movie Theme Song and was also nominated for Best Film Score at the 34th Metro Manila Film Festival for his music in the movie “Homecoming” by renowned Filipino director Gil Portes.
His work Mangá Pakalagián was premiered at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on November 15, 2015.
The 1999 BS Development Communication graduate from UPLB was admitted in 2001 to the UP Diliman College of Music, where he earned his diploma in Bachelor of Music in Composition, Magna cum laude, in 2007.
Alcala received the Gawad Chanselor Natatanging Mag-aaral, an award conferred by UP to students with outstanding academic and non-academic achievements. He became full scholar under the Billy Joel Fellowship at Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts in upstate New York where he finished Masters in Music Composition and received the Irene Crooker Excellence in Music Award in 2009.
The composer, arranger and vocalist is the second of three US-based sons of the late Nilo Mendez Alcala, a certified public accountant who grew up in Virac and the late retired teacher Regina Belarmino Alcala of San Pablo City. The couple’s sons were all raised in Lucena City.
He is also one of the many grandchildren of the late musician and retired Virac South District Supervisor Fredeswindo Alcala Sr. and the late teacher Soledad Mendez-Alcala, both of San Roque, Virac, Catanduanes.