Pinay pianist gets standing ovation in India music fest

Performing solo in Chennai, India, Filipina pianist Alexandra Minoza received a standing ovation as she set the bar for a music festival celebrated worldwide.

Minoza was the only Filipino to perform at the Goethe Institute-organized Fete de la Musique, a yearly musical festival that was held last June 21, a news release from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

For her first piece, Minoza played Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune," the third movement of the famous composer's "Suite bergamasque." [See video here.]

She followed it with "Ballade No. 1," one of Frederic Chopin's most technically challenging pieces.

Indian pianists joined Minoza for the festival's finale, playing the country's national song "Vande Mataram" and "Kinderszenen" by Robert Schumann.

A piano faculty at the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, Minoza recently earned her Master of Music in Advance Piano Performance at the Royal College of Music in London.

Prior to her performance in India, she earned her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore.

The Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra was Minoza's first experience with the orchestra, having her first concert with the group at the age of nine, the DFA said. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News