If the Philippines seems to be the only country that holds concerts that flow from the storylines of short sentimental films, it now also seems to be the only country that has an album of songs and spoken words integrated into a novel.

The concert-film concept was seen in the Wish Date series of KDR Music House whose latest staging at the Araneta Coliseum we wrote about just a few days ago.

The album-within-a-novel event was launched for the second time in Diliman, Quezon City, featuring the e-book Girl With a Broken String. Its first launch was in Cebu City in June this year. The launch had to be in the Queen City of the South simply because the talented and creative people that generated the e-book are Cebuanos.

Composer-musical director
-producer Jude Gitamondoc and writer-actor Therese Villarante are the primary creative forces. Villarante was a student of Gitamondoc in the
music-making workshops he conducts seasonally.

Now in his late 40s (but looking boyish), Gitamondoc is a dropout from the University of the Philippines' Conservatory of Music. He said his musical backbone was formed not at the state university but at the Don Bosco seminary under the tutelage of priest-formators there.

Music career

Gitamondoc began his professional music career in 2001 when he was in his 20s. He was commissioned to compose commercial jingles (such as for Casino Rubbing Alcohol, Happy Booster Hotdogs), theme songs (Mantawi Festival theme song), school hymns and wedding songs.