Lucrecia Kasilag
Fulbright Fellow, Philippines
Eastman School of Music, 1949-50 

From among its 84 million residents, the Philippine Government chose to honor Lucrecia Kasilag with its prestigious National Artist Award in 1989. With a distinguished career as a composer and conductor, fusing traditional Asian musical instruments and modern contemporary composition, Kasilag was an obvious choice. She has written more than 200 original compositions and headed several of her country's cultural institutions, including the Philippine Women's University College of Music and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Having led Philippine cultural delegations to Asian and European countries for many years, chaired the Asian Composer League, and incorporated elements of world music to enrich her own national traditions, Kasilag has helped internationalize Philippine music in significant ways. Finding musical inspiration beyond her own borders, Kasilag credits her Fulbright experience noting, "My studies at the Eastman School of Music, where I had full exposure to Western musical education, gave me an insight to my own desire to compose Asian music... juxtaposed with western instruments in a harmonious synthesis of East-West flavor."

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