Cynthia began her formal music studies at the University of the Philippines, then came to the U.S. at the invitation of the Opera Company of Boston. She attended the Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with the Metropolitan Opera’s Rose Bampton, and received a master’s from the Manhattan School of Music. She conducts choirs and teaches voice at the Calhoun School, Harlem Village Academies & Bard College and is an active performer, with groups including the American Chamber Opera Company and at the Hamptons Summer Music Festival and Bar Harbor Music Festival. Cynthia has been the music director of the Eglise de Saint Esprit for over 20 years Cynthia is the proud great grand niece of the composer of the Philippine National Anthem and has sung for Philippine Pres. Corazon Aquino, Gov. Pataki and Rudolph Guiliani. Cynthia has performed with jazz clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera in a composition composed especially for her by Garah Landes.