This National Women’s Month, we recognize and celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of our female national artists. These women have made significant strides in their respective fields, breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations of artists.

Today’s featured national artist is Fides Cuyugan-Asensio, National Artist for Music.

FIDES CUYUGAN-ASENSIO 
National Artist for Music 
August 1, 1931

 Known as the “grand dame of the Philippine stage,” Professor Emeritus Fides Cuyugan Asensio’s name has become synonymous with Philippine opera. Her more than six decades of involvement with the art of opera displays her dedication and passion to bring this Western dramatic idiom into Philippine theaters  for Filipino opera enthusiasts to experience and learn from. She was the first Filipino accepted to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music and as a coloratura soprano garnered praise for her performances. Her performance of Sisa in Felipe de Leon’s Noli Me Tangere became a hallmark in the country’s musical theater history. Aside from performing, she has an innate gift for writing and is credited to have conceptualized and written the librettos for some of the finest modern-day Philippine operas collaborating with noted composers such as Lucrecia Kasilag, Ryan Cayabyab and Francisco Feliciano She founded and supported the Music Theater Foundation of the Philippines and the Philippine Opera   Company. Asensio is actively involved in providing direction to the continuing development of opera in the Philippines. She was awarded the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining (Musika) in 2015 and the Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by then- President Gloria Macapagal in 2005. These and all the international and national awards she received are a confirmation that her life is a life lived with honor and excellence for the preservation and development of Philippine music and arts.

(Source: https://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/national-artists-of-the-philippines/fides-cuyugan-asensio/)