The students’ choir of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School in Manteca will be joining the award-winning, internationally acclaimed Saringhimig Singers in a concert set for Sunday, Oct. 25, at starting at 2 p.m.

The performance, to be held inside the church and is open to the public, is free; however, free-will offerings will be accepted to benefit the Santo Nino ministry group of the parish.

Saringhimig Singers, an internationally acclaimed choral group whose members include several from the area. They include Emelie Diaz, St. Anthony’s music minister and the director of the children’s choir, and  her husband Gilbert, an engineer who works at Tesla Motors in Fremont and a church cantor as well.

The Philippine Saringhimig Singers is composed of 25-30 members from around the San Francisco Bay Area under the direction of Artistic Director George Hernandez.

Founded by then music student George Hernandez in 1974, the group started as a chamber choir at the University of the Philippines and rapidly gained recognition as one of the best choirs in the country. Soon after, the choir embarked on several European concert tours participating in choral festivals, winning in distinguished choral competitions against many of the best choirs in the world, and reaping critical reviews from European critics thereby establishing an indisputable international reputation. The Philippine Saringhimig Singers is now based in San Francisco, California, and is still under the musical direction of George Hernandez, who has moved to San Francisco to continue, and has completed, his studies in piano, voice and choral conducting at the San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

The choir keeps a yearly schedule of concerts, mostly around the San Francisco Bay Area, and more recently international concert tours. As a mark of its enduring success and distinctive quality, the Philippine Saringhimig Singers has produced successful and world-renowned choral conductors, adjudicators, composers, choral arrangers, voice teachers and vocal soloists from its ranks over the years. The group’s repertoire is an array of music from different periods, styles and origins. It consists of Philippine traditional and contemporary pieces as well as foreign choral pieces representative of the major historical eras.

The group rehearses once a week in a purely self-funded capacity. Although the current members come from varied professions, their passion for singing and the artistic direction of Hernandez unites this dynamic choral group to continue its quest to reveal the unique beauty of the Philippine culture through music and achieve excellence in the art of choral music performance.