Lucrecia Roces Kasilag was born in San Fernando, La Union, Philippines, the third of the six children of

Marcial Kasilag, Sr., a civil engineer, and his wife Asuncion Roces Kasilag, a violinist and a violin teacher.
[2]:8788 She was the first solfeggio teacher of Kasilag. The second teacher of Kasilag was Doa Concha
Cuervo, who was a strict Spanish woman. Afterwards, Kasilag studied under Doa Pura Villanueva. It was
during this time that Kasilag performed her first public piece, Felix Mendelssohn's May Breezes, at a
student recital when she was ten years old.[2]
Kasilag grew up in Paco, Manila, where she was educated at Paco Elementary School and graduated
valedictorian in 1930. She then transferred to Philippine Women's University for high school, where in
1933 she also graduated as valedictorian. For college, she graduated cum laude in 1936 with a Bachelor
of Arts, majoring in English, in the same university. She also studied music at St. Scholasticas
College in Malate, Manila, with Sister Baptista Battig, graduating with a Music Teacher's Diploma, major in piano, in
1939.[2]:89[3]
Work Secret[edit]
During World War II, she took up composition, and on 1 December 1945, she performed her own compositions in a
concert at Philippine Women's University. From 1946 to 1947, Kasilag taught at the University of the Philippines
Conservatory of Music and worked as secretary-registrar at Philippines Women's University.
She completed a Bachelor of Music degree in 1949, and then attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester,
New York, studying theory with Allen I. McHose and composition with Wayne Barlow. Kasilag returned to the
Philippines, and in 1953 she was appointed Dean of the Philippines Women's University College of Music and Fine
Arts.[4]
After completing her studies, Kasilag made an international tour as a concert pianist, but eventually had to give up a
performing career due to a congenital weakness in one hand.
Kasilag was instrumental in developing Philippine music and culture. She founded the Bayanihan Folks Arts Center
for research and theatrical presentations, and was closely involved with the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company.[5]
She was also a former president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, head of the Asian Composers League,
Chairperson of the Philippine Society for Music Education, and was one of the pioneers of the Bayanihan Dance
Company. She is credited for having written more than 200 musical compositions, ranging
from folksongs to opera to orchestralworks, and was composing up to the year before she died, at age 90.
She is particularly known for incorporating indigenous Filipino instruments into orchestral productions.
Honors and awards[edit]

Honorary Doctor of Music from Centro Escolar University, 1975

Honorary Doctor of Laws from the Philippine Womens University, 1980

Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from St. Johns University in New York, 1981

National Artist in the Philippines, 1989