During the pandemic, Dingdong went back to his hometown in Ormoc to be with family. Every Sunday he would lug his electric piano and play for his lola in the afternoons – a mini recital lasting 4 hours.
He made it a point never to repeat works. Playing the complete sonatas by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven as well as piano works by Schumann, Chopin, Liszt. This became the catalyst for the twelve solo recitals this year.
Lola Daidy passed away this year. This concert is
a tribute to the matriarch who exemplified strength with grace, perseverance and above all filial piety.
The artist:
DINGDONG FIEL is a concert pianist, composer, musical director/orchestra conductor, and vocalist.
He earned his Bachelor of Music Degree from the UST Conservatory of Music and was the recipient of the RECTOR’S AWARD FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE having obtained the HIGHEST ACADEMIC AVERAGE of the entire course, as well as the BENAVIDES AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT.
He finished his post graduate studies (Weiterbildendes Certificate) at the FRANZ LISZT Hochschule für Musik in Weimar, Germany Solo Piano and Chamber Music under the academy’s rector – Prof. Rolf-Dieter Arens as well as vocal accompaniment with Prof. Karl Peter Kammerlander.
He has garnered a total of 5 first prize wins from various piano competitions. Through sponsors like the Friends
of The Philippines Society USA Inc., Deutsche Post, the UST Alumni Organization, Thueringer Aufbau Bank, Sparkasse Thueringen, The New Liszt Foundation, and various Philippine Embassies all over the globe, Dingdong was able to perform in a series of piano concerts around Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the USA – in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Guam, China, Japan, and Bahrain, among other countries.
Dingdong usually performs his own compositions in his concerts, the most recent was at a tour in Japan where he premiered his Preludes for solo piano- “Nuestro Mundo”. He has also composed music for foreign films that were entries to International Film Festivals – “THE GREEK MIRACLE” (2011), Three Spanish films – “PILAR GUERRA” (2011), “DON JUAN TENORIO” (2015), “LA REVOLTOSA” (2016) and the most recent – “JEAN D’ARC” the French film entry to the 2018 International Silent Film Festival Manila where he composed an hour and thirty-four minutes of music to accompany the famous film classic. This prompted silent film expert and critic – Teddy Co to exclaim that his scoring of the film was “the best version he has seen so far”.
Dingdong also attracted
the attention of noted composers who were moved to write music specifically for him.
These include music written by composer John Luke Jose for solo piano,
a piano composition by Spanish pianist and composer Michael Davidov and “5 Pieces For Dingdong” which was composed specifically for his musical persona by Filipino composer Kabaitan Bautista.
As Musical Director/Orchestra Conductor he was involved in various theater and opera productions such as Verdi’s LA TRAVIATA at the Aliw Theater, Repertory Philippines’ Manila staging of the musical “NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY”, Ryan Cayabyab’s rock opera – “LORENZO”, the Manila run of the famous musical “INTO THE WOODS”, and Menotti’s thriller opera – THE MEDIUM, to name a few, as well as numerous classical, jazz, rock and pop concerts.
Dingdong is the songwriter and lead vocalist of the band – HARI. The band debuted at the biggest Original Pilipino Music gathering of 2018, The OPM pinoy playlist 2018. Their single – “Pa’no Umibig Muli” is already out on all digital platforms (i.e Spotify, Itunes, Amazon, Google music). He is currently the lead vocalist and songwriter of the group BLUE VIOLET BLUE.
In this pandemic, despite the quarantine protocols in place, it was still very eventful for Dingdong’s singing career. Through numerous videos posted on social media pages, people noticed and he was eventually invited by an association of singers based in the US to do an online singing fundraiser entitled- Quaran-Sing. The week after the said concert, a big producer based in New York also booked him an interviewed/live performance singing his original songs at WISH USA 107.5.
As a mentor and collaborative artist, he has worked with hundreds of instrumentalists and singers from all over the world for more than two decades.
Dingdong is a winner of the prestigious Aliw Awards Best Instrumentalist of the Philippines award.