 At the age of eleven, he was accepted at the Philippine High School for the Arts, a government-run school for the musically gifted at the National Arts Center, in Mount Makiling, Laguna province.He studied piano with Nita Quinto at the University of the Philippines College of Music, with John Winther in the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and with Michael Lewin at the Boston Conservatory.In 1996, he received his Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where he was a scholar and student of Jerome Lowenthal.