A Reunion with a Cultural Virtuoso

“Being a Filipino does not end with preferring English over Filipino, nor choosing Hamburgers over Sinigang, but rather ends when we have forgotten that we have our own literature, culture, and heritage to the point where we abandon it...” — Gillian Reyes

He certainly stood out from among my former professors at the University of the Philippines Diliman as one of most divergent: a dark, Middle Eastern-looking man with an immaculately trimmed beard who spoke perfect Ibanag and often came to class in his signature Batik Indonesia shirt and white flared pants. I nearly flunked his Humanities 11 class when I couldn’t tell the difference between a “Kubing” and a “Kalaleng” and had to make up for it by volunteering to voice-over a “call to action” spiel protesting against the results of the Snap Elections of 1986 which he initially intended to deliver in the university’s AM campus radio station (DZUP 1602) himself. I remember heaving a sigh of relief when I received my class card with a final grade of “1.75.”

Of course, Professor PEDRO REYES ABRAHAM FAKHRI JR., the multi-awarded performing artist whom everybody fondly calls “Edru,” will no longer remember any of my misadventures under his class; in fact, I doubt that he would even remember me at all. But when I met him again for the first time in nearly thirty-three years during a Rotary Club of Manila meeting that had him as guest speaker, this half-Lebanese-half-Cagayeño exhibited the same unbridled passion for Filipino ethnic music and dance, as he did during my university days — with such unmatched, extraordinary ardor that eventually gave birth to the U.P. ethnic music-and-dance ensemble Kontemporaryong Gamelan Pilipino, or more popularly known as Kontra-GaPi, an all-original Gamelan (i.e. traditional ensemble music of Javanese origins) group which he founded in 1989.

Together with twelve of his young adherents, he skillfully entranced a largely sexagenarian-cum-septuagenarian audience — many of whom clutter the country’s largest business and political firmament — with his evocative Hindu-Malayan-influenced rhythms of Mindanao’s “Singkil” and “Kapa Malong Malong” as well as Cordillera’s “Banga” and “Lumagen,” accompanied by the mesmerizing indigenous instrumentation comprising of the "dabakan," "kulintang," "gangsa" and "gambal" which largely re-imagined the influence and movement patterns of long-established ethnic dance forms in a theatrical framework, and within a cultural standpoint to create a compelling musical number.

Despite having officially retired as faculty from the premier state university since 2012, Professor Abraham nevertheless, continues to serve UP Diliman as a professorial lecturer in the Department of Art Studies of the U.P. College of Arts and Letters (CAL), where he teaches Performing Arts History, Visual Arts History, and Philippine Culture and Arts Studies. From the beginning of his professional performing career in the mid-sixties to the present, this Bachelor of Arts graduate in Speech and Drama and a Master’s degree holder of Arts in Art History from UP Diliman has participated in various capacities as actor and director; dancer and choreographer; musician; singer and composer; voice talent; narrator; announcer and host-presenter; concept-writer and producer in several hundred productions on stage, film, radio and television. Truly, this “Pedro-of-All-Trades” is one of our country’s genuine national treasures.

I am only too honored to have been his student… even if I almost flunked his Humanities 11 course.