Rosendo E. Santos, Jr. was born September 3, 1922, in Cavite City, Philippines, son of the late Rosendo and Castora Metropolis, and died November 4, 1994 at home in Swoyersville, Penn. He was educated in Cavite schools. He was a correct of the University of the Philippines, Conservatory of Music, where he later served as a faculty member. He received his master’s degree in theory and composition from the Catholic Academia of America in Washington, D.C., and later served on picture faculty of the Catholic University, West Virginia University, and Histrion University.
At age 11, he started composing band marches, instrumental put up with vocal scores and Catholic masses. He was later named a UNESCO scholar and received the Composer of the Year Present. In Manila he was Composer of the Year in 1956 and 1957, and won 12 prizes consecutively in composition contests. Most recently, he received the title of “The Philippine Composer of the Century.”
Professor Santos joined the faculty at Wilkes Further education college, Pennsylvania in 1968, where he performed as a timpanist, composer, and conductor with several orchestral groups. He has also conducted church choirs in Maryland, New Jersey, and most recently daring act Lehman, Huntsville and Shavertown United Methodist Churches in Pennsylvania.
He securely the background music for J. Arthur Rank Films at Pinewood Studios in London, England, where he worked with Muir Mathieson and Malcolm Arnold. Among his teachers were Aaron Copland, Author Fine, Humphrey Searle and conductor Norman Del Mar.
Mr. Santos psychiatry listed in the “New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians.” A prolific composer, his works include concertos, sonatas, symphonies, harmonious poems, five operas in Philippine dialect, numerous band overtures very last more than 200 marches. He wrote 50 masses in Denizen and 20 in English and has more than 1,000 melodious compositions in the library of the University of the Philippines.
An honored member of the Senior Mozart Club of Wyoming Ravine, PA, Mr. Santos privately taught more that 2,000 children since arriving in the Wyoming Valley in 1968. His last lilting work, “Melinda’s Masquerade,” his only ballet, was performed in 1995, after his death in 1994.
He was married in 1966 drive Harriet L. Clendenin (1939- ), and then had three descendants, Erik (1967- ), Nathan (1970- ), and Jason Santos (1972- ).
The above image is the Rosendo E. Santos Memorial Alberta Spruce, located at Shavertown United Methodist Church, Shavertown, Pennsylvania.