TAGUIG CITY – The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) on Friday announced the 61st batch of awardees who continues to do inspiring creative works that make the lives of other much better.
With this year’s theme “Courage Undaunted”, RMAF President Carmencita Abella said that this year’s award “
One of this year’s recipients of the said prestigious award is National Artist, musician, composer, and conductor Ryan Cayabyab.
Cayabyab was born in Manila and was raised in a home filled with music since his mother was accepting music students as their boarders.
In his teenage years, Ryan took up a business management course and did side jobs as a pianist or accompanist for musical artists. it came to a point wherein the parents of one artist were so impressed by his talent that they gave Ryan a full scholarship in order for him to pursue his music degree.
Late 1970s when he decided to start writing music, making his name widely known as his signature song “Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika” won the grand prize in the first-ever Metro Manila music festival and in an international song festival held in South Korea in 1978. From then on, Ryan went to perform in different competitions around the globe.
Ryan has been a great influence in honing singers and music groups that have won significant national and international awards. His talent helped shape the Philippine music industry where he played a big role in the Original Pilipino Music (OPM) to promote a culturally distinct, contemporary Filipino popular music.
RMAF chairperson Jose Cuisia Jr. said that Cayabyab was recognized for “his compositions and performances that have defined and inspired Filipino popular music acrros generations as well as his dedication in mentoring and promoting young Filipino musical genius for the global stage and by showing the world that music can indeed instill pride and joy, unity, and unify people despite all the barriers that causes division to everyone.
Also an educator, Cayabyab is the president of The Music School of Ryan Cayabyab and served as a professor for the Department of Composition and Music Theory at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
Cayabyab is also the executive director of the Philpop Music Fest Foundation, Inc., the group that organizes the Philippine Popular Music Festival. Through this he continuously puts forward major initiatives in music training, promoting Filipino music overseas, and fostering Filipino cultural identity through music.
