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Candonians of Southern California, Inc.
| EvangeIine 1) Hawaiian War Chant 2) Lovely Hula Hands 3) Pearly Shells 4) Blue Hawaii Blanquita 1) Lullaby - Francisco Buencamino, Sr. (Sa Kaarawan ng ating Inang Minamahal) 2) Liebeswalzer. Valse d’ amour - Love Waltz. Moritz Moszkowski, Op. 57 No5. 3) Alt - Wien (Old Vienna) "whose yesterdays look backwards with a smile through tears." (Triakontameron, No. 11) Leopold Godwosky Evangeline I) Mule Skinner Blues 2) Green Green Grass Of Home 3) Under The Boardwalk 4) Besame Mucho 5) Malaguena Salerosa 6) I 'm Going To Live Until I Die 7) Cuando Caliente El Sol 8) Summertime 9) American Trilogy Blanquita 1) Claire de Lune - Claude Debussy 2) Premiere Ballade - Fredrick Chopin, Op. 28 3) All The Things You Are -Jerome |
| Blanquita Guirnalda Alameda |
| She is the eldest of seven children of Fernando (Anding) Guirnalda and Angelita Rons. She went to St. Joseph Institute from kindergarten Conception, the Mother Superior. She later continued private lessons with Miss Asuncion Gallardo, now known as Sister Tarcissus, of the Eucharist with St. Paul's Order. With the onset of World War II, piano lessons stopped, resumed again after the war with Miss Minervina Dario, now Mrs. Singson, for the next three years. When the family moved to Manila, Mrs. Singson recommended Blanquita to her former teacher. Professor Julio Anguita. Blanquita auditioned and was accepted. Continuing under Professor Julio Anguita, director of the conservatory of music/she received her B.S. in Pianp Performance from the University of Santo Thomas. She married Lt. Benjamin Alameda, a fighter pilot with the PAF. They had two sons Raul and Benjamin. In 1963, she taught Music and Arts at the University of the Philippines Preparatory High School and at Mapua High School. She eventually had her own studio where she taught mostly children of PAF & PAL officers. After moving to the United States, she taught at the Los Angeles Music & Art Schoolfor 29 years, until she was offered Chairperson of the Music Department of Ramona Convent Secondary School where she taught for five years. As well as teaching, she took classes from well-known master teachers in the Los Angeles area for two years. She joined the Music Teachers Association of California and the National Guild of Piano Teachers, a division of the American College of Musicians in 1980. In 1988, she was offered membership in the Guilds Board of Judges. She mentored and developed very talented students, qualified to enter piano competitions, such as Young Keyboard International Piano Competition, at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. She entered seven semi finalists: one was eight-year old Frances Atienza, a Filipina and the only finalist from the state of California. High school seniors, who studied with her for six to twelve years, were presented in a senior recital, upon fulfilling the required musical compositions. They are then adjudicated before they can receive their High School Diploma in Social Music. She has mentored fifteen of these qualified students. Because of her student's achievements, The National Guild of Piano Teachers awarded her a permanent place in their United States Hall of Fame in 1990. She is also a member of the Candonians of Southern California Inc. She is currently judging piano recitals and maintaining a piano studio. |
| Evangeline GuirnaldaTaylor She is the fifth of seven children of Femando (Anding) Guirnalda and Angelita Rous. Shortly after she enrolled in Kindergarten at St. Joseph Institute, the family relocated to Manila. She was enrolled in the second grade and graduated as an honor student at 16. The summer of her high school graduatioon, she went to the American School of Fashion and received a diploma there before enrolling at Adamson University, majoring in Chemistry. She was going into chemical research when she was .sent to Los Angeles California. There she decided to work rather than continue her studies Security First National Bank hired her as a page for she was only 17. On her 18th birthday, they sent her to bookkeeping school, where she completed the course way above their expectations, and was sent to night classes taking commercial law, to work as an officer of the bank. During this time, she had a change of heart and decided to go into show business. She took dancing lessons for a month and landed a job as a hula dancer with a “Hawaiian Revue” at the “Seven Seas Restaurant” in Hollywood. While in Hollywood she went to a 20th Century Fox Studios audition for dancers in an upcoming movie. This was the beginning of her two years in pictures. She did several movies, “Girls, Girls, Girls”, with Elvis Presley, and “Diamond Head” with Charlton Heston. She did photographic doubling with Marion Brandon in “Mutiny on the Bounty” for seven months. She was a regular for “Hawaiian Eye” and” McHale’s Navy,” T.V. series, and several more movies. After two years of working in pictures, she decided to join a Tahitian group from Tahiti, to do shows at Disneyland for the summer and shows on the Nevada circuit for the rest of the year. She left the group and joined “The Johnny Coco Revue” on Broadway in Manhattan, New York. When the contract ended, she went back to work at the bank,. City National Bank in Manhattan, in the proof department, and modeled shoes during the day, while doing club dates on the weekends. She joined a Samoan Group in Chicago, then went back on a road tour with “The Aloha Islander”. She met her husband while traveling with this revue. They were booked in the club, “The Luau”, in Miami Beach Florida. He was performing a single music comedy act. They married and put their acts together and were known as “The Jerry & Lani Show”, a husband and wife musical comedy act. They were the highest paid duo, traveling the Midwest, booked solid for two years in advance. They added a five piece band and traveled extensively for decades throughout the United States. She and Jerry had two children and took a “sit down” job in order for them to have a normal childhood. They traveled only when school was out. While they were in school, she took cosmetology classes and graduated and was licensed in Mississippi. Jerry had a major stroke 12 years ago and was paralyzed. In the first few years she took care of him she taught herself to play the piano and guitar. She has composed and recorded several songs and is currently doing a single act. |
St. Joseph Institute Mayor Alien G. Singson Mrs. Lilia Ramos Alog President of The Candonians of Southern California Inc. To my teacher and mentor during my teenage years Mrs. Minervina Dario Singson Fernando Guirnalda 1860-1938 Ilocano Leader Patriot & Nationalist President of The Republic of Candon Medal of Honor was presented March 8, 2008 by The Candonians of Southern California Inc. |