Nhick Ramiro Pacis is a Filipino-American music composer, arranger and pianist in Tampa, FLorida. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree, majoring in Piano from the University of the Philippines College of Music . He was also a member of the UP Concert Chorus from 1987 to 1997 and has joined its 1988, 1990, 1996 and 1997 international tours in Europe, USA and Canada.
Musical compositions and arrangements include “Dance Suite No. 1”, a piano solo premiered at the Abelardo Hall Auditorium during his graduation recital. This was shortly followed by “Suite No. 2”. In 1993, he was arranger and pianist for the Royal Academy of Dancing (RAD) Festival Children’s Syllabus Music, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. During the same year, he arranged “Kenkoy” by Nicanor Abelardo which was the contest piece in the 1993 National Arts and Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA) Children’s Choir Division.
In 1992, he was commissioned by the UP Presidential Commisson for Culture and the Arts (UP-PCCA), under former director Dr. Jonathan Malicsi, to arrange music for the Ilocano sarzuela, “Riri Ken Tiri” written by Filemon Palafox. This sarzuela was launched in Baguio City and since then, up to the present, it has been performed all over the Ilocos region and Manila. After “Riri ken Tiri”, a new sarzuela, “Dagiti Naulbod”, soon followed, also commissioned by the UP-PCCA. Other compositions/arrangements are the musicals “Bisperas ng Pasko” (misical) for the Dulaang UP and UP Concert Chorus (staged in December, 1995 and 1996) , synthesized orchestral arrangement of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” for the UP-PCCA (1995), orchestral arrangement of Rey Paguio and Fides Cuyugan-Asensio’s “Mayo…Bisperas ng Liwanag” for the Philippine Music Theater Foundation, Inc.1996-98) which also toured the US in 1998, a series of arrangements for string orchestra and piano for Ateneo de Manila’s Papuri concert (1997), “Singkil” for the Department of Tourism’s entry to the 1998 Rose’s Parade in Pasadena, USA, “La Viuda Allegre” with the UP Playwrights Foundation (1998), film scoring for the documentary film, “Saga of Filipino Warriors” (1998), re-orchestration of Ramon Tapales’ “Binhi ng Kalayaan” (UP-PCCA, 1998), and “Parangal”,an album of nationalistic songs and musical scoring for the National Centennial Commission Literary Prize Awards (1998).
Subsequent works include “Father Image” (1999), “Sonus Dei” (1999, orchestral arrangements for the Manila Millennium Orchestra(2000), musical “Trip ni Emman” (2000) , “We Shout Laoag!” (2000) , musical “Refuge and Strength”(2000) for the Manila Cosmopolitan Church and “Paano Kita Mapapasalamatan” (2000), an album of the UP Concert Chorus. Among his other arrangements include numerous choral pieces performed by the UP Concert Chorus, UP Cherubims and Seraphims, Ateneo Glee Club, DBP Chorale, Ilocos Norte National High School Choir and other singing groups, soloists and instrumentalists in the Philippines, Europe, USA and Brunei.
His past tours include “On Wings of Song” 2000 and 2003 with the Philippine Music Theater Foundation, Inc. which spanned several states in the US over a three-month period. He served as musical director, arranger and accompanist. He also recently composed original music for the album “Silence” (2001) for the Ayala Foundation as a companion CD of a book of the same title by Randolf S. David and Jaime Zobel, and soundtrack for short films “Life is a Beach” (2003) and “A2B” (2005), full length sci-fi film “The Coming” (2008) and short films “Deathwish” (2010) and “The Looking Glass” (2013) and “GAIA TV Series” by Canadian director, Chad Costen, Filipino Film “Liway” (2018), directed by Kip Oebanda.
He has also produced 2 albums, “Inner Silence” and “Voyage”.
He has also arranged music for the Florida Men’s Chorus and his most recent works for chorus, “Parvule Christe” (2010) and “Venisti” (2011) consecutively won the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay Christmas Carol Competition in their respective years.
He also sang with the Choir of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.
He now works as in-house musical director for the Philippine Cultural Foundation, Inc. in Tampa, Florida, directing the Musikong Kawayan Bamboo Ensemble, an anklung ensemble which is gaining recognition in the area and the newly founded Filipino American Music Theater Company which premiered “Ana Maria” by Severino Reyes and Antonio Molina. He is also the music director at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ybor City, Tampa, conducting its resident choir, the OLPH Ladies’ Chorus.