Cecile Buencamino Licad is an acclaimed Filipina virtuoso classical pianist. She was born on May 11, 1961 in Manila, Philippines. She began her piano lessons under her mother and later studied with the highly esteemed Rosario Picazo. She made her debut at age seven as a soloist of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. She then moved to the United States when she was twelve to study at Curtis Institute of Music. She is dubbed as the "pianist's pianist" by The New Yorker.
She is recognized internationally as one of the youngest musicians to ever receive the prestigious Leventritt Competition Gold Medal in 1981. She then later performed with the major orchestras in the world from Asia to North America then to Europe. Her recording of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2, with André Previn conducting the London Philharmonic, was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin in 1985, in the piano and orchestra works category by the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw, Poland. Her son, Ottavio Licad Meneses, is also a pianist. They had a special performance together at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2007.
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| Cecile Licad together with other legendary Filipinas Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and Lea Salonga via The Philippine Star |
