(Business Mentor's note: The following is an interview with Karla Patricia Gutierrez, a recipient of the New Neutrogena Woman for the Arts for 2002 and an Amazing Alumni Achiever Awardee in 2013 by the Maryknoll/Miriam College Alumni Association. She finished her Bachelor of Music Degree, Major in Voice from the University of the Philippines’ College of Music, under the tutelage of Prof. Fides Cuyugan-Asensio. She pursued further studies in Opera Interpretations with the Accademia Internazionale delle Arti in Rome under the supervision of Maestra Doris Andrews. She is the manager of an all-female classical cross-over group, “Opera Belles,” which won an Aliw Award for Best New Female Group and a Golden Choice Awards for Best Official Soundtrack in 2011. Karla is currently the Artistic and Managing Director of the Philippine Opera Company and Vice President of the Friends of the Philippine Opera Foundation.)

Business Mentor: What is this group called Harana?

Gutierrez: Harana is Philippine Opera Company’s cultural arm. It is a recipient of the 2nd Maria Carpena Memorial Award for the Arts and United Filipino-Canadian Associations in British Columbia 2016 Heroes Award.

Harana aims to showcase the evolution of Philippine music through song and movement. Each suite is theatrically presented with authenticity, originality and visual excitement. The word “harana” is the Filipino name of a traditional form of courtship in which a man woos a woman’s affection by singing underneath her window. The creation of each Harana suite is a product of thorough research with the commitment to preserve indigenous Philippine music and its appropriate dance and folklore. It also aims to restructure and enhance these research findings to evolve repertoires suited to the demands of contemporary theater; and to promote international goodwill through performances at home and abroad. The result is an absolute feast to the senses.

Business Mentor: Why do you need to do “Harana”?

Gutierrez: We at Philippine Opera Company have chosen to do Harana because now more than ever, when globalization is the future of the world, we need to remind ourselves of who we are, where we are, where we have been, and what we held dear.

We need to re-awaken our cultural tardiness if we wish to survive as Filipinos and protect our culture, our heritage is not a luxury or a cost, but a necessity.

To truly move forward we must also revisit our heritage and reaffirm the values that shaped our cultural identity that served our ancestors in fighting for our country’s freedom.

The relevance of cultural heritage depends on the efforts of every generation to re-discover and re-interpret it. This is a chain of shared knowledge and experience that should never be broken. Only in this way can heritage be a living force, rooting us in our past and helping to shape our future by enriching our sense of identity and nourishing our creativity.

Philippine’s cultural heritage is one of its strongest assets. Protecting this heritage and making full use of its potential is a shared responsibility.

Now, more than ever, we need to believe in ourselves. The songs that have served us well in the past will also serve as well as we go bravely into the future.

Business Mentor: What are the challenges your group faces? And how can readers be of any support?

Gutierrez: Mounting a show like “Harana” is an act of faith. All around, the commercial theater and concert scene is full of imports, both the ideas and the actual productions. When we at the Philippine Opera Company decided to make a tradition of our Harana series, we said to ourselves, “This is going to be a tough job. But we want to do it because we need to be reminded of how beautiful our music is, and how much our souls can be enriched by hearing these sung again.”

So, with a cast of dedicated singers, artistic and production staff we set out creating the production. The stirring arrangements of multi-awarded arrangers were more than enough basis for the staging and the choreography. As the production took shape, we felt more and more inspired and encouraged by the overall picture that we were painting for an audience--a picture that we Filipinos so badly need to return to.

From tribal chants, from planting songs to courtship ditties, from stirring kundiman to the delightful showstoppers from the works of the three C’s—Canseco, Cruz and Cayabyab, the portrait we paint is of a race that is inherently good, inherently strong and kind and noble. The music we need to hear again and again, has painted the portrait of a people we need to be reminded we once were.

We badly need the support of the government and private sectors for us to be able to continue this cultural journey in promoting Harana here around the country and to our kababayans who need to reconnect with their roots. Sustaining a show like this is very expensive for our company. We do a lot of research and we need to sustain the high quality standard of a show to be able to bring it abroad.

Students should be exposed to this kind of shows, because nowadays everything is just pop culture. It is shocking that some kids don't even know how to sing "Bahay Kubo."

To borrow Andre Marlaux's words in his "Homage to Greece" pronounced in 1959: "Culture is not inherited, it is conquered."

BM: Despite your difficulties, I understand your group has been reaping its rewards? Tell me more.

Gutierrez: Harana recently came back from their 118th Philippine Independence Day Concert in Canada. They performed in Vancouver, Victoria, Gibson's, Langley, Surrey and Winnipeg. Harana received consistent standing ovations from the Canadian and Filipino audience.

Since the launch of “Harana” in Manila, with a cast of eight classical theater artists who are mostly award-winning performers in their own right, many have been asking for repeat performances. They have awed and amazed the audience by doing the full choreography while singing with classical flair in costumes which represents every musical suite. The show garnered good reviews not only from critics but from its audience.

Business Mentor: How do you make the generation of today appreciate your group?

Gutierrez: Harana is a simple show, no frills or whatsoever, but the message of the show is so strong that we were able to bring back that nationalistic pride and make our kababayans realize that we have neglected our culture and heritage.

We've performed Harana in several schools to private and public, same, standing ovation in our performances. The objective of Harana is to educate the younger generation to the beauty of our Philippine music and culture. That's why we made the orchestration of our accompaniment sound like movie scoring, we had it re-arranged by award winning composers, so that we could reach out to them (younger generation).

Business Mentor: What is your message to our countrymen?

Gutierrez: Love you own. Support your own.

We continue to show “Harana” despite the seeming foolhardiness of doing a Pinoy musical revue when every other Pinoy seems interested in listening to anything but his own traditional music. Not every Filipino feels a connection with their cultural heritage. Some may think traditions are old-fashioned and no longer relevant, and that they are unnecessary during these modern times. This is why we need to be exposed to our cultural heritage for only upon understanding our culture may we begin to value it.

Business Mentor: I listened to the album of Harana and every note gave me goose bumps. It awakens my sense of what it means to be truly Filipino. Every song reminded me our historical lineage. This group despite the meager support received from the government and private sector continues to slug out to come up with a meaningful show. Many of us may be so eager to watch a performance of a well-known foreign group and paying a hefty price to watch. Isn’t it high time we bring in the nationalistic pride and support our very own?

This group, after all, is what I call "the wings of change." Email me if there are readers who would like to contribute in whatever way in strengthening this group.

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For questions and more information, you may contact the Business Mentor, Armando "Butz" Bartolome by email: philfranchiseguru@gmail.com or on Twitter https://twitter.com/philfranguru. His website is www.gmb.com.ph