Filipino musician sends balikbayan boxes filled with instruments to children back home

MANILA, Philippines – Long before he performed in concert halls and symphony orchestras overseas, Ian Resurreccion played music on the streets of Alfonso, Cavite.

The first saxophone he held was not his own. Like many children in his hometown’s marching band, San Miguel Banda 8, he practiced using worn-out instruments passed from one player to another — some dented and some with missing parts.

Still, those battered instruments changed the course of his life.

Today, Resurreccion, now based in Texas, is helping ensure that the next generation begins with better opportunities than he did.

Every now and then, Resurreccion packs a balikbayan box with second-hand musical instruments bound for his hometown.

Using his extra money, he scours garage sales, flea markets, and Facebook Marketplace in Texas for affordable finds, collecting saxophones, trumpets, clarinets, and other instruments before shipping them home to aspiring young musicians in Alfonso.

“Kasi para sa akin napakalapit sa puso ko ’yung bandang pinanggalingan ko. Doon ako nagsimula. Way of giving back ko ’yun. Dahil nakikita ko ’yung sarili ko sa mga batang nagsimula doon,” Resurreccion told Rappler.

(That band is very close to my heart. That’s where I started. This is my way of giving back because I see myself in the children who are now starting there.)

Word of his initiative spread among fellow musicians in Texas. Friends from orchestras and bands who learned about his project began donating instruments gathering dust in their homes.

“I have friends here in orchestras and bands who know that story. They remembered that they have a collection of instruments that they don’t use anymore. They’re donating them to our band in the Philippines. I collect them until I can fill a whole box,” he said.

Many arrive scratched, dented, or no longer playable. That doesn’t worry him.

“Although the instruments that I collect are old and broken, we have a lot of talents in the Philippines who are resourceful and repairmen. Although not all of them (instruments) look good, they get them into working condition,” he said.

For Resurreccion, every repaired instrument represents a chance for another child to discover music. He knows because he once depended on that chance himself.

“I remember how hard it was in the Philippines. We were sharing an instrument. It was hard to buy, especially for my group when I was a kid in a small town. Our instrument was broken. It was lacking. The effect on a group is big when the instrument is complete. Different sounds. The sound you produce is better. Then, you learn more,” he said.

Scholarship built on music

Resurreccion was only 12 when he joined his hometown marching band after watching musicians perform during local parades.

He wanted to learn the flute, but there wasn’t one available. Instead, he picked up the saxophone — a decision that eventually earned him admission to the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Conservatory of Music.

His audition, however, came with a challenge.

The orchestra already had enough saxophonists. If he wanted a scholarship, he would have to learn the bassoon instead, Resurreccion said. He accepted.

The scholarship made it possible for him to pursue a music education degree despite his family’s concerns about whether music could provide a stable career.

Learning the bassoon was another hurdle. At the time, the conservatory owned only a single instrument shared by three students.

Professional bassoons cost around P2 million, while student models range from about P612,000 to P734,000, prices far beyond what most Filipino families can afford, Resurreccion said.

He only got to afford to buy his own bassoon in 2024.

Music became his passport

As a child, music first took him to neighboring towns across Cavite. As a member of the UST Orchestra, it brought him across the Philippines.

Music also gave him a series of firsts: his first airplane ride, his first international performance, and his first trip abroad — to Hiroshima, Japan, for a New Year’s concert.

The boy who once shared a broken saxophone in a small-town band had become a professional musician performing on international stages.

After graduating from UST, Resurreccion received another scholarship to pursue a Master of Music degree at Texas Tech University.

When he returned to the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic, opportunities for professional musicians had largely disappeared.

Rather than wait, he returned to Texas to pursue a doctorate degree in music under a scholarship.

While completing his studies, he worked as a teaching assistant and performed with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, Big Spring Symphony Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony Orchestra, and Roswell Symphony Orchestra.

Looking back, Resurreccion said he never imagined that music would one day take him to international stages.

But every visit home reminds him that his story began with a borrowed instrument.

Whenever he returns to Cavite, he goes back to the same community where he first learned to play. There, surrounded by children holding instruments that once crossed the Pacific inside balikbayan boxes, he teaches them the same lessons that changed his own life.

For Resurreccion, each donated instrument carries more than notes and melodies. It carries the possibility that another child from a small town may one day discover that music can take them farther than they ever imagined. – Rappler.com