Freddie Santos is a Filipino

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 theatre and concert director.

Theatre career

Santos was born in Quezon City, Matro Manila. His early studies were at Lourdes School

Lourdes School of Quezon City

Lourdes School Quezon City is a private, Catholic educational institution owned and founded by the Capuchins in Quezon City, Philippines, beside the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. The school is also known by the acronym LSQC, which differentiates it from its sister school, Lourdes School...

 (Quezon City

Quezon City

Quezon City is the former capital and the most populous city in the Philippines. Located on the island of Luzon, Quezon City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila, the National Capital Region. The city was named after Manuel L...

), Sacred Heart School and University of Southern Philippines (Cebu City

Cebu City

The City of Cebu is the capital city of Cebu and is the second largest city in the Philippines, the second most significant metropolitan centre in the Philippines and known as the oldest settlement established by the Spaniards in the country.The city is located on the eastern shore of Cebu and was...

). As a Rotex

Rotex

Rotex is an international organization open only to Rotary "rebounds", or former Rotary International Youth Exchange students. While Rotex is only a relatively new concept, Rotex clubs are appearing rapidly around the globe and there are now Rotex clubs in most of the countries that participate in...

 Scholar in Arvada West, Colorado

Arvada, Colorado

The City of Arvada is a Home Rule Municipality located in Jefferson and Adams counties in the Denver metropolitan area of the U.S. State of Colorado. Olde Town Arvada is located northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver...

, he was trained by David Helm in drama and by Rex Nelson in music.

Upon his return to Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

, he was hired by advertising company Dentsu

Dentsu

is one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. Its headquarters are located in the Dentsu Building in the Shiodome district of Minato, Tokyo....

 to join its copy department and within three months, he was promoted to copy chief at the age of eighteen. After two years he moved to working in theatre.

He was mentored in voice by his uncle, the baritone Aurelio Santos Estanislao, who at that time headed the Voice Department at the College of Music, University of the Philippines

University of the Philippines

The ' is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No...

. Santos joined Repertory Philippines. He joined productions of Teatro Pilipino

Teatro Pilipino

Teatro Pilipino was a resident drama company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines from 1976 to 1987. It was founded by Filipino playwright, translator, director, and educator Rolando S...

, Musical Theater Philippines and SRO Philippines. He was professionally involved, either as actor, coach, assistant director or director in more than a hundred stage plays and musicales totaling nearly a thousand performances. After five years with Repertory Philippines where he was also active in the research and publicity committees, he eventually moved to SRO Philippines where the focus was on dinner theater

Dinner theater

Dinner theater is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. Sometimes the play is incidental entertainment, secondary to the meal, in the style of a sophisticated night club, or the play may be a major production with dinner less important, or in some...

 and where he found the freedom to further develop his other skills. Here, Santos wrote an original play adapted from the book Paper Moon and headlined by a very young Lea Salonga

Lea Salonga

Lea Salonga-Chien is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and...

 during its premiere run. He also nurtured his skill in stage lighting

Stage lighting

Modern stage lighting is a flexible tool in the production of theatre, dance, opera and other performance arts. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used in the pursuit of the various principles or goals of lighting. Stage lighting has grown considerably in recent years...

, make-up and choreography

Choreography

Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...

.

Freddie Santos has been involved with the performing arts

Performing arts

The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...

 for over thirty years now, winning thrice the Aliw Award

Aliw Awards

Aliw Awards by the Aliw Awards Foundation, Inc. was established by the renowned Philippine journalist Alice H. Reyes, to recognize achievements in the live entertainment industry in the Philippines...

 for Best Stage Director in the country, the first to win the award in both categories of Stage Musical (’87, ’00) and Concert (’08).

Music career

Santos also began singing in lounges, spicing up his gigs with humor. His weekly acts at Tita Lola's and Café Alvarado became quite popular with young professionals and garnered him a number of rave reviews in the papers. It was then he was asked to direct a lounge show by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 queen Jacqui Magno and its impact on his life encouraged him to change life directions dramatically. Almost immediately, he abandoned his performing career to fast become one of the country's top concert directors with a distinctive crossover directorial style that combines theater with pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 and cutting-edge technology. To date, he has written, designed and/or directed more than 400 pop, rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 and classical

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 concerts totaling over 3,000 performances, working with artists such as Jamie Rivera

Jamie Rivera

Jamie Rivera is a pop singer from the Philippines. She was born Mary Jane C. Mendoza on August 29. She graduated from University of Santo Tomas.-Singles:*Heal Our Land...

, Lea Salonga, Monique Wilson, Gary Valenciano

Gary Valenciano

Edgardo Jose Martin Santiago Valenciano , better known as Gary Valenciano or Gary V., is a Filipino musician. He is also dubbed as Mr. Pure Energy. He has released 26 albums, and won the Awit Awards for "Best Male Performer" 11 times. In 1998, he became UNICEF Philippines first national Ambassador...

, and Regine Velasquez

Regine Velasquez

Regina Encarnacion Ansong Velasquez , better known as Asia's Songbird, Regine Velasquez, is a Filipino singer, actress, record producer and TV host...

..

He has also written a number of pop songs, and has worked as a lyricist with composer Louie Ocampo

Louie Ocampo

Louie Ocampo is a Filipino composer and arranger best known for his association with Martin Nievera. His numerous hits, mostly collaborations, include Tell Me, Kahit Isang Saglit, and You Are My Song....

.

Other work

Santos has written the plays First Name, Joseph, The Dreamer, So David…, Widows, Orphans and Wildebeests, and Il Divino.

He acted as Corporate Events Director for companies such as Sony (10 National Conventions, 2 World Conventions), Bayer

Bayer

Bayer AG is a chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in Barmen , Germany in 1863. It is headquartered in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and well known for its original brand of aspirin.-History:...

 (5 Bayer Young Environmental Envoy Programme Awards, 1st Bayer-UNDP Eco-Forum), Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 (Philippine Launch of XP, OS2000), Citibank

Citibank

Citibank, a major international bank, is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York...

 (2 Citibank Excellence Awards, Voice of Citibank affairs), Philippine Airlines

Philippine Airlines

Philippine Airlines, Inc. operating as Philippine Airlines, is a flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered in the Philippine National Bank Financial Center in Pasay City, the airline was founded in 1941 and is the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name...

 (5 Sales Awards Nights), Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company commonly known as PLDT, is the largest telecommunications company in the Philippines. PLDT is also the largest company in the Philippines, ranked 1138th in the April 2009 update, and 1080th in the April 2010 update, of Forbes' Global 2000 list...

 (80th Anniversary Launch, PLDT/Smart Foundation Launch), Smart Communications

Smart Communications

Smart Communications is a wholly owned mobile phone and Internet service subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company .On June 30, 2010 the company reported that it had over 45 million cellular subscribers.-Brands:...

 (Annual Smart Infinity Golf Classic, various company events), Kia

Kia Motors

Kia Motors , headquartered in Seoul, is South Korea's second-largest automobile manufacturer, following the Hyundai Motor Company, with sales of over 1.4 million vehicles in 2010...

 (Launch of Kia Pride), Destiny Cable (Launch of Various Products), NXP (Philippine Launch), Concepcion Industries

Concepcion Industries

Concepcion Industries is a maker of electrical appliances such as air conditioning equipment and refrigerators. The company is based in the Philippines and was founded in the 1960s. The company is known for its several notable brands that include Carrier, Condura, and Kelvinator....

 (Conventions/Product Launches in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Manila), Young Presidents' Organization

Young Presidents' Organization

The Young Presidents’ Organization is a global network of young chief executives. With approximately 18,000 members in more than 100 countries, YPO and its graduate organization, WPO share a founding mission: Better Leaders Through Education and Idea Exchange....

 World Convention, SMX Convention Center

Smx convention center

The SMX Convention Center is the largest private venue in the Philippines for trade events, industry conventions, corporate functions, and international exhibitions. Its building is located in Pasay City, right beside the Mall of Asia , and is considered an important part of the Mall of Asia Complex...

 (Launch), Philippine International Convention Center

Philippine International Convention Center

The Philippine International Convention Center is a convention center located in the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines...

 (15th Anniversary Celebration).

He has directed social events including five state dinners/presentations for HRH Bolkiah of Brunei

Hassanal Bolkiah

General Haji Sir Hassan al-Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah GCB GCMG is the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, the 29th Sultan of Brunei and the first Prime Minister of Brunei Darussalam...

 with guests of honor Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Prince Charles of the UK

Charles, Prince of Wales

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...

, Grand Philippine Reception/Performance for former Prime Minister of the UK and Ireland Mr. Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

, 80th Birth Anniversary and 50th Wedding Anniversary of Taipan Henry Sy

Henry Sy

Henry Sy is a Chinese Filipino businessman and the founder of SM Group and chairman of SM Prime Holdings, the largest retailer and shopping mall operator in the Philippines. He earned his Associate of Arts degree in Commercial Studies at Far Eastern University in 1950...

, and the debut of KC Concepcion

KC Concepcion

KC Concepcion is a Filipina actress and singer and who is currently a National Ambassador Against Hunger of the UN's World Food Programme.- Personal life :...

.

He has done quite a number of spoken word

Spoken word

Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....

 recordings, a number of which were aired on European Radio and continues to give lectures and workshops to young performers today. Several of his sessions were aired on national television in two high-rating weekly musical shows.

He has worked in television, directing ‘Yan Ang Bata (Ch7, Catholic Mass Media Awards Winner), Musikatbp. (Ch5, 13, CMMA Winner), The Manilyn Reynes Musical Show (Ch13), The CBN Drama Special (USA, Sequence Director), Mikael (Indonesia, Sequence Director), Love Lea (Ch4, Sequence Director), Triple Treat (Ch2 Sequence Director), and has directed 24 music videos for Ch13.

His latest achievement in video is the 10-part Documentary on the life and works of International Spanish artist, Philippine Presidential Order of Merit Recipient and Cross of Isabella Awardee Juvenal Sanso.

Since the 1990's, he has also been a board member of House of Refuge, a shelter devoted to looking after abused and abandoned streetchildren. During the September 2009 devastation brought about by Typhoon Ketsana, the entire shelter and its vehicles were lost to floodwaters that reached over 14 feet high. Santos is now, on top of everything else, working with the other board members to rehabilitate the shelter on new property in the highlands of Silang

Silang, Cavite

The Municipality of Silang is a first class landlocked municipality in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2009 census, it has a population of 234,285 people in an area of . Silang is located in the eastern section of Cavite...

, a town in the Philippine province of Cavite

Cavite

Cavite is a province of the Philippines located on the southern shores of Manila Bay in the CALABARZON region in Luzon, just 30 kilometers south of Manila. Cavite is surrounded by Laguna to the east, Metro Manila to the northeast, and Batangas to the south...

located immediately south of Mtropolitan Manila..