Familuiar Historians and I must say, also musicians of the future will now have no difficulty learning about the life and works of the esteemed Filipino musician and patriot Julio Nakpil (1867-1980). While information about his contemporaries is usually scant or sadly non-existent, Nakpil’s has now become readily available.
This is because almost everything about the Quiapo-born genius who fought alongside Andres Bonifacio has now been preserved online, in print, on record, etc., in ways he most surely never imagined during his lifetime. This is thanks to the massive research study labeled the Julio Nakpil Music Project.
Set to be launched officially on May 22, which is Nakpil’s 155th birth anniversary, the Julio Nakpil Music Project was funded by the Salikha Creative Grants from the Commission on Higher Education and the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (CHED-NCCA). The research study was implemented by the University of Santo Tomas Research Center for Culture, Arts and Humanities with historical musicologist Prof. Maria Alexandra Inigo-Chua, PhD at the helm.
It took several years given the COVID-19 pandemic and other delays but the Julio Nakpil Project is now complete. Of course, there is always the chance that there are other documents, music sheets and memorabilia the Project was not able to unearth and which hopefully might be revealed in the future. But for now, whatever exists has been preserved for the delectation of historians and music lovers.