When the former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, Michel Piastro, heard the 13 year old Filipino violinist Ernesto Vallejo play in Manila in 1922, he gushed: "It is a crime that this child should continue here longer. Of the 11 million Filipinos, I am sure there is only one Vallejo. What is more, I doubt that in the entire Malay race he has his equal." The famed Jewish violinist, Mischa Elman, who had also heard the boy, had an even more urgent plea: "No time should be lost in sending young Vallejo to the United States. To fail to do so would be to lose a genius who will bring honor to the Philippines.”
And so, at age 14, the violin virtuoso was granted a scholarship and became the country’s youngest pensionado in history. With Don Ariston Bautista providing additional funding assistance, Vallejo was sent off to America in October 1923.
ERNESTO VALLEJO, BOY VIRTUOSO. Just 13 in this photo, Vallejo impressed New York Philharmonic orchestra conductor Michel Piastro with his masterful performance. His talent would take him to America as the country’s youngest pensioando, where his star would shine even more. Alex R. Castro Collection
There have been ominous signs that Ernesto Fausto Vallejo was destined for greatness at a young age. Born on 19 December 1909, Vallejo grew up in a home filled with music. Jose Vallejo, his Ilocano father, played the violin and led the Army and Navy Club Orchestra, while Feliza Arriola, a Visayan-Tagalog was a talented harpist. Many of his 11 siblings (he was the sixth child) could play the piano and sing—sister Fely not only became a singer, but also an actress, who later became the wife of director Gerry de Leon.
Family lore had it that he very young Ernesto was fascinated early with the violin. His father used to hang his violin away from his children’s reach, but Ernesto always managed to find it. Once, in an effort to reach the instrument, Ernesto used a high chair but lost his balance, and fell on the floor. His father gave him a sound trashing, and then to avoid another incident, he bought his son a toy violin made of tin. The older Vallejo began teaching him the rudiments of violin playing, and the boy learned very fast, sometimes learning musical pieces alone.
The young Vallejo was already adept with the violin while still in grade school at the Santa Cruz Primary School. He was sometimes featured at the Zorilla Theater, the Columbia Club and the Army Navy Club where he never failed to wow the patrons with his violin skills. His playing brought him to the attention of music maestros Marcelo Adonay and Bonifacio Abdon, who took him under his wing, under the sponsorship of the Asociacion Musical de Filipinas. There, the 7-year old, fondly called “Vallejito”--owing to his diminutive size—was given a violin perfect for his size.
TAKE A BOW. Ernesto (X) with his violin, as a member of the Riverdale Country School Glee Club. Image: Graphic Magazine, 1929
Upon arriving in America, Vallejo enrolled as a high schooler at the Riverdale Country School in New York where he would stay for four years.
Likewise, he started studying violin techniques under the private tutorship of Herr Franz Kneisel, a German violinist who ranked among the world’s best. Often made to practice 7 hours a day, the young Vallejo became a favorite student of the temperamental master. His progress was quick and he was soon giving concerts for the benefit of the Riverdale community. In recognition of his musical ability, Vallejo was made a director of the Riverdale Country School Glee Club, a group reserved for the best students.
Incidentally, Vallejo not only excelled in music but also in sports. He was an ace tennis player and for 3 successive years, and won the Riverdale Junior Championship title, boosting his popularity as a campus figure.
In 1924, several multimillionaires from Florida, headed by Henry Seligman, requested Herr Kneisel to send his best violinist to headline an annual concert for the aristocrats of Palm Beach. Vallejo was the master’s choice, and his impressive performance won the hearts of the discriminating audience.
Of the 16 year-old virtuoso’s performance, the Palm Beach Journal gushed, “Vallejo’s first two numbers were capable of showing all the beauty of tone, the restraint so rare, the marvelous technique and warmth of feeling surprising from one so young…In Wieniawski’s “Russian Airs”, he was particularly delightful, and the spirited “Slavonic Dance” by Dvorak, (a severe test, using Kneisel’s arrangement) he stood nobly, playing with verve and distinction.”
AMERICA’S GOT TALENT…and it’s a Filipino! Teen-ager Ernesto Valljo was a prized student of Franz Kneisel who was often sent to perform in music events around America, with very important people in attendance. Image: Graphic Magazine, 1929
Seligman was highly impressed; not only did he invite him for the next year’s concert but he also gifted Vallejo with an antique Landolfi’s violin worth $20,000, and even offered to adopt him!
The year’s highlight was a performance before Pres. Calvin Coolidge at the White House, where he would win fans and admirers like California millionaires Mrs. Lionel Atwill, who gave him another violin valued at two thousand dollars.
The Artist is Recalled to the Philippines
In the 6 years he stayed in America, Vallejo gave a total of 14 concerts all over America—Boston, Philadelphia (where the press made much of him), Washington D.C. (private concerts before Governor Davis and Secretary of War, James Good), Chicago and San Francisco.
He toured both East and West Coast, meeting Hollywood stars like Janet Gaynor, Marion Davies, Ramon Navarro in the process. He hobnobbed with musical luminaries as Heifetz, Zymbalist, Eddie Brown, Ruth Breton, Sasha Jacobsen (his tutor after Kneisel’s death in 1926) and Samuel Gardner. He would also perform for Gen. Douglas MacArthur at his Stotsenberg Estate in Philadelphia.
IN BAD SYMPHONY. Ernest Vallejo, in an outing with his American and Filipino friends. His alleged questionable conduct put him in hot water with Pensionado Committee in 1929, who gave him marching orders to come home. Image: Graphic Magazine, 1929
Due in part to his time on the road--performing, travelling and socializing—unfavorable news about his conduct soon reached Manila. It was rumored that the 20- year-old was leading a Bohemian life among kindred artists in New York.
As a result, in early 1929, Vallejo was ordered recalled to Manila by Gov. Gen. Dwight F. Davis to face the Pensionado Committee. The controversy was a result of a misunderstanding between Vallejo and his pensionado agent Mrs. Georgia Williams and the incident was soon settled.
His final graduation concert was held in 14 March 1929 at the New York Town Hall—the first Filipino to do so-- where he brilliantly performed Edouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole and Brahms' Sonata in A major. Noel Strauss of the Evening World of NY observed that “although many violinists have tried their hands at the overworked Brahm’s sonata, it remained for a 19-year old Filipino boy from Manila to give an adequate interpretation of the work.” The Columbia Recording Co. dangled a lucrative contract for him to record original Philippine compositions, but by then Ernesto Vallejo, now a young adult, was ready to come home. On his way to the Philippines, he gave concerts in Shanghai and Hong Kong that drew large, appreciative crowds.
Home is the Hero
THE WORLD AT HIS FEET. 20 year old Ernesto Vallejo returned to Manila to show off the fruits of his musical education in America. His homecoming concerts were huge successes, all me with standing ovations. Image: Philippine Free Press
Vallejo returned to Manila to a rapturous welcome on September 1929. He immediately gave a series of homecoming concerts beginning n September 18, at the Manila Grand Opera House. As expected, he brought the house down. The founder of the Manila Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Lippay, enthused: "He plays everything with soul…..There is no question about his talent. Although only 20 years old, he plays with the maturity of a man of forty. It is phenomenal!"
Vallejo was expecting he would be sent to Italy after resolving his difficulties with the Pensionado Committee. This, apparently, did not materialize. Undeterred, he focused on performing and mentoring student violinists for the next decade or so. The violinist and later, conductor Redentor Romero was a student.
In 1934, Ernesto Vallejo married Nona Guebert of Manila, and started a family (they had 3 children) and also a new job as a member of the U.P. Conservatory of Music faculty. He would resign this post to teach at the Academy of Music, and to join the Manila Symphony as concert master.
VIOLINS IN THE MOVIES. Ernesto Vallejo had his musical moment in the Parlatone-produced “Bahay Kubo”, which premiered at the Fox Theater in 1938. The musical romance starred his sister, Fely Vallejo. Image: Philippine Graphic, 1938
He even found time to dabble in movies, appearing in the 1938 film “Bahay Kubo”, directed by brother-in-law Gerry de Leon and starred in by his sister Fely Vallejo. It was a story about a poor girl who was discovered for the opera, and Vallejo has a scene showing skillfully playing his violin with passion and aplomb.
But Vallejo loved most his concert tours with pianist Prof. Esteban Anguita, that allowed him to bring his violin music all over the country. His last public appearance was at the Times Theater, where he performed musical interludes, often with sister fely joining him.
A cruel end to a charmed life
The coming of the War would bring untold
miseries to many Filipinos. Even the Vallejos were unscathed from enemy threats,
so they fled to Tanauan, Batangas upon the invitation of an affluent friend and
godfather Manuel Gonzales. Ernesto encouraged the rest of his siblings to join
them there, but they refused. The move proved to be a tragic one for Ernesto.
The initial years of Japanese occupation seemed uneventful enough, as Vallejo—who bought along his musical pieces and 4 violins to Tanauan—would hold impromptu concerts,some of which were even attended by Japanese officers and soldiers, many of whom he befriended.
But, when the Japanese got wind of the coming of the American liberation forces to Laguna and Batangas, they went into a murderous frenzy on 10 February 1945. The day before, guerrillas had issued a warning for civilians to flee Tanuaun, as reports of massacres in Laguna had reached them. Fifteen members of the Gonzales family immediately packed up and left the town, but Martin Gonzales chose to remain. Also opting to stay put was Ernesto Vallejo an d his family.
That fateful day, Japanese soldiers rounded up a number of civilians in Tanauan, a group that included Ernesto Vallejo and his family. Hoping that the violinist would be recognized by the commanding Japanese officer who had once been part of his concert audience, he raised his hands. A hail of bullets was fired by the Japanese as they massacred the group, ending Vallejo’s life, his wife and 3 children. He was just 35.
Their bodies were said to have been thrown into a well, but no traces of them could be found.
ONE BRIEF SHINING MOMENT. The war put an end to
the brief, shining career of violin prodigy Ernesto. He and his wife and 3
children were massacred by Japanese in Tanauan, their bodies never to be found.
His memory lives on in his music, a few recordings of which survived.
Today, saved for a few in the music circle, the name Ernesto Fausto Vallejo remains unknown and unremembered. For years, rumors abound that someone managed to find Vallejo’s valuable violins and musical pieces, amidst the rubble and decay. Even the Vallejo home in Malate was bombed and razed to the ground, and whatever was left of Vallejo’s personal items—photographs, souvenirs, mementos—were lost forever.
But Ernesto Vallejo left behind a legacy of records that will be hard to surpass and will be long remembered—first, for the music that he created as a phenomenal violin savant with no equal, and second, for being the youngest government pensionado in Philippine history.
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR TOWNANDCOUNTRY.PH AND POSTED UNDER THE TITLE: "THE FILIPINO VIOLIN PRODIGY WHO WOWED THE PRESIDENT AND HOLLYWOOD STARS", 3 January 2018.
Graphic Magazine, 1929
All other photos, Alex R. Castro Collection
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