In the Spotlight - Charles Roy Baguio (The Philippines)

Our spotlight series explores the musical stories and experiences that first bring people to music and what it is that inspires a lifelong love of music and the drive to share that through teaching music to others. ​

​Charles Roy Baguio is Dean of the College of Science and Arts of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation in Cebu, Philippines. Within the umbrella of the college  is the AB Music Program Department which partnered with Magnus Creative Music Inc. in hosting the 1st International Applied Music Education Conference in the Philippines last January 20-24, 2020 which highlighted Musical Futures Workshops. ​

The following is a transcript of Dean Baguio's welcome speech which he gave at the opening of the conference session in Cebu and which resonated completely with the ethos and approach of Musical Futures International. Many thanks to Dean Baguio for allowing us to publish it here.

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It is indeed a privilege to welcome you who are artists and educators from different parts of the country and even from abroad to the first International Applied Music Education Conference in the Philippines or IAMEC. This year's conference theme “Making Real Music in the Classroom: International Perspectives and Methods in Music Pedagogy for 21st Century Learners” is a statement of the desire to teach your students how to produce real, quality music in the classroom and how to make it relevant, interesting and updated for the learners of the 21st century.

And this conference becomes an avenue for the valuable exchange of perspectives across the globe with the help of our very able and generous resource speakers. 
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 Every art is evolving, and music and education are not exceptions to that; hence, the need for events like this conference to continuously equip further our music educators and practitioners of new trends, skills, methods as well as avenues for the sharing of best practices in the field that could further make our endeavours more productive.

Definitely, music education has been, and must continue to be outcomes-based. Students shall not progress to the next level unless they can do what they are expected to do and learn what they are expected to learn and show these competencies in actual demonstration. But as educators we must also be able to sustain the interest of our students so that even when the going gets tough, they will persevere in their pursuit for excellence in the field.

The University of Southern Philippines Foundation is happy to host the venue of the first IAMEC and be a part of an important first” in the field of music. I am hopeful, as well as everybody else in this room, that we will all have a fruitful exchange and go back to our mother institutions with some fresh insights on how to be a better practitioner and educator of music.

Furthermore, I hope that we will not only develop skilful musicians, but skilful musicians with a good attitude. May this first IAMEC be followed by many more IAMECs in the future, be participated by many more, and contribute a lot more to the development in the field.

​USPF welcomes you to the first IAMEC and may God bless many more artists and educators with the grace to be collaborators of the development of their gifts and those of others according to the greater purpose for which these are given. Have a learning-filled and enjoyable two-day conference, and thanks to the conference organisers for all the effort