Filipino composer and conductor
Josefino "Chino" Javier Toledo (born March 6, 1959) is a Filipino composer and conductor.
Biography.
Early Life.
Josefino Toledo is born on March 6, 1959 to Victor Toledo and Lolita Javier. Born to a musical family, his father Victor was the founder and directors of Pangkat Kawayan, a musical ensemble of bamboo instruments played by elementary school students. It was his father who first taught him the rudiments of music. He likewise played in his father's ensemble during his childhood days, playing the marimba and xylophone.
Education.
His first formal music studies was at the Laperal Music Academy which he simulateneously took alongside his high school education at the Far Eastern University. He enrolled at the University of the Philippines College of Music, graduating with a Bachelor's of Music in Composition in 1979. His teachers at the conservatory include the national artists Lucio San Pedro, Ramon Santos, and Jose Maceda. From 1983-1985, he took further studies at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris through a grant by the French government. A rockefeller grant enabled him to pursure graduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, graduating in 1986.
Career.
After he graduated at the UP College of Music in 1979 he became the principal percussionist of the Manila Symphony Orchestra. At the same time he taught percussion and composition in his alma mater the UP College of Music. He also taught at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music until 1983.
He eventually became the music director and conductor of the Manila Symphony Orchestra from 1985-1987, as well as guest conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra on several occasions in the 1990s and 2000s.
In 1991, he was the musical arranger and music director for the zarzuela revivals of the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Tanghalang Pilipino. Under this institution, he arranged the music and recorded several Filipino zarzuelas such as Walang Sugat, Dalagang Bukid, and Paglipas ng Dilim under the "CCP Sarswela Series".
In the 2000s, he maintained his faculty position as chair of the Composition and Theory department at the UP College of Music, eventually obtaining the title of Full Professor. He was also the executive director of the Miriam College Center for Applied Music. In 2000, he founded the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra, serving as its music director until 2016.
In 2016, he became the founding director and conductor of the University of the Philippines Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, he was bestowed the title of Professor Emeritus by the UP Board of Regents.
Personal Life.
Chino Toledo is currently married and has two children.
Compositions.
Chino Toledo's compositions are in the avant-garde style. His music is characterized by its "fusion of contemporary western language and Southeast Asian aesthetics". His first commissioned work, "Angklungan", written in 1976 when he was 17 while studying at the UP College of Music already showed the influences of his composition teachers, particularly of Jose Maceda. Toledo's catalog of works includes music for theater, films, scoring libraries, orchestrations and arrangement for different performing forces, and revisions and edition of Philippine sarsuwelas.
The following is a selection of his compositions: