Fidel G. Calalang Jr.

Fidel Calalang, Jr. finished his music studies in piano performance and conducting at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music where he is currently a faculty member of the UST Conservatory Piano and Conducting Departments.

He is the founder and conductor of the University of Santo Tomas Singers. Since its foundation in 1993, he has led the choir in 36 international concert tours of Europe, USA, Canada, Asia, Australia, and Mexico winning over 82 top prizes in various international choral competitions all over the world, such as Tours France, Tolosa, Torrevieja and Cantonigros Spain, Gorizia and Florence Italy, Baden and Spittal Austria, California USA, and including the 1998 Gran Premio Citta di Gorizia and the 2019 Choir of the World Champion of Champions title and the 2010 and 1995 Choir of the World Grand Prize at the Llangollen International Music Eisteddfodd in Wales, UK.

Awarded Most Outstanding Thomasian in the field of Music and Performing Arts and recipient of the Outstanding Artist in Music by UST, he also won top prizes at the League of Filipino Composers and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Composition Competitions in 1984, 1985, and 1987, the 2008 NCAA Choral Writing Competition, the First Prize at the 1999 International Composition Competition in Ojai California USA, the Best Conductor prize at the 2002 International Choral Competition in Monster Netherlands, Best Contemporary Choral Arrangement Prize at the 2015 Florence International Choral Competition in Florence Italy and the Second Prize at the 4th Ennio Morricone International Composition Competition in Florence Italy last 2018 for his composition Laudate Dominum.

He conducted workshops and masterclasses in Turin, Italy in 2002; at the Taipei Summer Music Festival in Taiwan in 2007, at the Polyfonia International Choral Festival in Normandy, France in 2008, at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany In 2013 and 2017, at the Aules Theater in Barcelona, Spain in 2010, at the University of Gdansk in Poland, at the Beijing Wuzi University in China in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017, at the Beijing Normal University in 2014, at the University of Washington College of Music in Seattle, Washington, and in Denver, Colorado in USA in 2014, at the Korean International Symposium in Jeju Island, Korea, and the Beijing Agricultural University Chorus in China.

He was also the guest conductor of the Vox Aurea Chamber Chor in Madrid, Spain, the Yeunoul Mixed Choir in South Korea, the Beijing Wuzi University Chorus in China.

He was Chorus Master of the Philippine Productions of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Karl Jenkins’ “Requiem” and the operas “Rendezvous in Venice” by Jeffrey Ching, Verdi’s “La Traviata,” and Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

He was member of the international jury in choral competitions in Pardubice, Czech Republic in 2006 and 2008, in Wales, the United Kingdom in 2004, in Sopot, Poland in 2013, in North Sumatera, Indonesia in 2016, and chairman of the jury at the 65th Certamen Internacional Habaneras y Polifonia in Torrevieja, Spain in 2019.