Composer/Arranger/Vocalist/Theater Actor

Nilo Alcala’s works have been described as “...highly revealing, if insightful...” (Inquirer.Net), “... marvelously ear-opening experience... (Musical America Worldwide), “...powerful... spectacularly engaging” (Lauri’s List), “...exuberant and at times hypnotic...”(Cultural Cocktail Hour), “merry gibberish” (Mark Swed, LA Times) and “...scaled peaks of genius” (Asian Journal).

Alcala is carving a legacy for Philippine Arts internationally. A trailblazing artist, he is the first Philippine-born composer to receive the COPLAND HOUSE Residency Award (2017), as well as to be commissioned by Grammy-winner Los Angeles Master Chorale. He is also the first Filipino artist to be featured as Musical America Worldwide's Artist of the Month and be awarded The American Prize in the Professional Division, Major Choral Works Category. Other awards include the POLYPHONOS Young Composer Award from The Esoterics (Seattle, WA), IGNITE Commissioning Competition of C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective (New York, NY), and Second Prize at the Asian Composers League (ACL) Young Composers Awards (Tel Aviv, Israel). He has received two Ani Ng Dangal (Harvest of Honor) awards from two Philippine Presidents. He is also featured in the Encyclopedia Of Philippine Art of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Recognized by his hometown for his artistic and cultural pursuits, Alcala was awarded Natatanging Lucenahin in 2021, and the Quezon Gintong Medalya ng Karangalan for Culture, Music, and Arts in 2024.

Alcala's works have been performed by numerous artists and ensembles in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. He was member and composer-in-residence of the Philippine Madrigal Singers (UNESCO Artist for Peace).

An Asian Cultural Council grantee, Alcala is also a Billy Joel Fellow at Syracuse University where he earned an MMus in Composition and received the Irene L. Crooker Music Award. He graduated BM in Composition at the University of the Philippines, magna cum laude and recipient of Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Mag-aaral (Chancellor’s Outstanding Student Award). He also holds a BS in Development Communication degree and was recipient of the inaugural Higino Ables Best BSDC Research Award.

A stage actor, his recent credits include lead roles in Tanghalang Pilipino USA's staging of Ryan Cayabyab and Bienvenido Lumbera's Noli Me Tangere The Musical in Los Angeles, as well as in Ang Paglilitis Ni Mang Serapio , a musical mounted by Dulayan Kalilayan (formerly Kataga-Lucena).