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doing a rural residency program in the US. He was shuttling
from New York to Kansas, immersing himself in rural places
including Dodge City. “I asked myself, what does classical
music have to do with the land of Wyatt Earp? I thought if I
could do it here, I could do it in our farm.”
Coke asked his father to help him build a community
center on their ancestral farm. The idea was to have a
place where deserving artists could hone their crafts under
scholarship grants. Since then, the 70-seater Ramon Corpus
Concert Hall, a pleasant cavernous surprise behind the
black door on the second floor, decorated with old paintings
and fading sepia photographs — including that of a young
president-to-be Ramon Magsaysay, a relative and fellow
Zambales local — had been a veritable venue for chamber
orchestra concerts, plays, operettas and ballets.
Named after his grandfather, who completed a soloist
violin course at the New England Conservatory of Music in
Boston in 1919, the concert hall has always been CASA’s
showpiece. This may change with the opening of the
Museum of Community Heritage this month.
New attractions
Located on the third level, the new museum will house
a wide range of exhibits, including photographer Nico
Right: Former
child prodigy and
renowned pianist
Coke Bolipata has
seen his vision for
CASA come true.
Below: inside the
main theater’s
performance hall
Classical music
pours out of the
theater
S O U N D O F M U S I C
