By Fr. Keith Amodia, FIS SocCom coordinator
EAO, 11 October 2023, Via Zoom - The composers and musicians from the EAO Region gathered and met virtually together for the first time with Fr. Gildasio Mendes, SDB, General Councilor for Social Communications. Fr. Gildasio noted that this was the first time that such a group came together in the congregation. Present were music lovers from East Timor, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Thailand.
Fr. Gildasio shared with the group the four objectives for the meeting: to know the composers in the Salesian Family, both Salesians and lay, who have written music about Salesian Spirituality, to know what musical art is produced in the region, to set up a worldwide network of musicians and composers since "we have many but most of them remain unknown", and to collect the written songs and to publish them as a collection for use by the Salesian Family.
In the meeting, Salesian and lay musicians introduced themselves, their background, and their musical works. Some also performed and shared a taste of their talents in music. Fr. Gildasio, who himself is a composer, encouraged the group to grow in their network and promised to inform and orient the Rector Major, Angel Cardinal Artime, SDB, of this new development in the congregation. The meeting ended with a promise for another one next month and with more musicians on board.
