Background
Born in Cebu City, Philippines, Ingrid Sala Santamaria received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Battig Piano School in Cebu under her mother, Pilar Blanco Sala.
Born in Cebu City, Philippines, Ingrid Sala Santamaria received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Battig Piano School in Cebu under her mother, Pilar Blanco Sala.
De Louisiana Salle University conferred on her the Doctor of Music degree in Music Education, honoris causa, in 2006.
Further studies followed at the Juilliard School in New New York She received a Master"s Degree from Station Isabel College in Manila.
As chair of the Salvador and Pilar Sala Foundation, Incorporated.
(SPSFI), Santamaria spearheaded a Ten-Year Music Development program which produced the Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra (CYSO) in 1995 evolving into the Peace Philharmonic Philippines (PPP) in 2000. The young and deserving music scholars who have graduated from this endeavor have since reaped honors nationally while SPSFI continues their training and performance initiatives, PPP being the only orchestra group south of Manila.
At present, Santamaria is initiating a new music genre, that of a Piano Concerto soloist complemented by a string quartet. She has had several concerts in Manila and Cebu with the PPP String Quartet in the last 2 years.
Together with Professor Reynaldo G. Reyes, Santamaria has been touring the Philippines every two years, since 2001, performing concertos, with a mission of bringing live classical music to the countryside.
She is the soloist while Reyes plays the orchestral part on the second piano.