Ryan Cayabyab named as one of 2019 Ramon Magsaysay awardees

The good news was announced by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) on Friday, August 2, saying that its board of trustees recognizes Cayabyab’s “compositions and performances that have defined and inspired  Filipino popular music across generations; his indomitable, undeterred confidence to selflessly seek, mentor,  and promote young Filipino musical genius for the global stage; and his showing us all that music can indeed instill pride and joy, and unify people across the many barriers that divide them.” (File photo: Titopao/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Award-winning Filipino musician and composer Raymundo “Ryan” Cayabyab was named as one of this year’s awardees of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award.

The good news was announced by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) on Friday, August 2, saying that its board of trustees recognizes Cayabyab’s “compositions and performances that have defined and inspired  Filipino popular music across generations; his indomitable, undeterred confidence to selflessly seek, mentor,  and promote young Filipino musical genius for the global stage; and his showing us all that music can indeed instill pride and joy, and unify people across the many barriers that divide them.”

This is the newest addition to his long list of accolades after he received the title of National Artist for Music last October 2018.

[READ: Duterte recognizes 7 new National Artists to confer with ONA]

Cayabyab, known as “Mr. C” in the Philippine music scene, got a break when his signature song “Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika (How Beautiful is Our Music)” won the grand prize in the first Metro Manila popular music festival in 1978 as well as in an international song festival in South Korea in the same year. Since then, his career in music blossomed, winning in other competitions and performing widely in the country and abroad.

The 65-year-old musician also acted as conductor, arranger, and composer of San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Miguel Master Chorale. He is also an educator who served in the music faculty of the University of the Philippines (UP) and conducted free workshops for thousands of students across the country.

Aside from Cayabyab, other awardees were Kim Jong-ki of South Korea, founder of the Foundation for Preventing Youth Violence (FPYV); Ko Swe Win of Myanmar, editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now; Ravish Kumar of India, executive director of the New Delhi Television Network; and Angkhana Neelapaijit of Thailand, founder of Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF).

These five individuals will be formally conferred the Magsaysay Award on September 9 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).