Maestro Ryan Cayabyab’s aspirations for and reminders to the emerging young musicians of the 2019 PhilPop Boot Camp distilled the spirit of a career spent as much in artistic production as in service to the nation. Cayabyab, in his lifetime, has consistently worked to bring music to people of all ages and walks of life and to shine a light on Filipino pride and talent through various awards and scholarship programs.

In 2009, The Music School of Ryan Cayabyab collaborated with the Music Museum Group Inc. to identify and train budding singers aged 8 to 12 through the Musmusikuwela program. They later mounted MusiKabataan, a music scholarship program for teenagers.

Together with Tao Corp.’s Jun Sy and industry expert Twinky Lagdameo, Caybyab was instrumental in launching several cycles of the Elements Music Camp with 7101 Music Nation. Gathering music industry experts to teach the next generation of singer-songwriters, Elements ran annually from 2010 to 2015, and have helped inspire some of the country’s notable young Filipino artists.

As Board Member of the PhilPop MusicFest Foundation Inc., he helped establish the Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) in 2012, to recognize professional and budding songwriters all over the Philippines and to encourage Filipino artists to take pride in their culture and identity in music-making. Since 2017, he has been leading the foundation’s songwriting boot camps in inspiring young Filipino composers from across the country.

For the Maestro, “The next generation should be better than us for our country to move forward. For this to happen we must teach them everything we know at every possible instance.”