Ester was 5 when she started to study piano and by 10 she was entertaining guests with her repertoire of songs at private parties in her hometown in Dalaguete, Cebu, in central Philippines. She earned a degree in medical technology, but music was to be her life-long calling.
Ester joined her uncle's 10-piece band as a pianist. After gaining confidence in her own ability she joined smaller groups. Her career as a singer-piano player began at the piano bar of the Manila Hilton. In 1972, Ester and her husband, a Thai national, left for Bangkok, where she took more lessons in performance and music theory while leading a busy career as a mother and a pianist-singer.
The petite Ester has been singing and playing in the United States for over two decades now, in clubs, restaurants, cabarets, concerts and private parties. She holds a master's degree in music and piano performance from Roosevelt University. She has won international acclaim having performed in Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, Geneva, Monte Carlo, Toronto, Arezzo (Italy), Bangkok and Manila. She recently returned from Bangkok where she held a concert to benefit children of mothers with AIDS.
While maintaining her base in Chicago she has performed in New York, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Las Vegas, San Jose, Bethlehem, San Antonio, Michigan City and Minneapolis. Chicago's music lovers, politicians and businessmen flock to clubs or restaurants where she performs, including Sorriso, Yvette, Toulouse, Gable on Clark, Le Studio, Huckleberry's, Punchinello's and Europe at Night.
Critics call Ester a phenomenal talent, singing songs in over a dozen languages including Swedish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, Thai, English and Filipino. Her recordings feature some of her original works as well as her facility with languages and her familiarity with different musical styles including classical, folk and theater music. Presenting a pleasant mixture of ethnic and popular music, Ester has received critical acclaim for her beauty of tone, humor and skilled piano artistry.
She has held fundraising concerts at the Harold Washington Library Auditorium, the Weinstein Center of Performing Arts, the Drury Lane Theater and the James Simpson Theater at the Field Museum. Over the years, aside from performances, her musical activities in the United States have included organizing children's choirs for nursing home visits, producing a variety of programs for private parties, music-directing in Filipino theater groups, and directing a choir of Filipino doctors and the Rotary/One Songbirds.
Ester is an active member of Rotary/One, the founding club, in Chicago. She is also an environmental awareness proponent and loves gardening and reading.
