A Marriage of Lights and Music

With the sky as canvas, fireworks and music as medium, Vander crafts a meticulous art that tells a story.

Words Marc Nathaniel Servo
Photos courtesy of Philippine Pyro Enthusiasts Association (PPEA)
January 08, 2026

Fireworks carry a special place in the hearts of every Filipino. May it be in birthdays, weddings, Christmas, or the New Year’s Eve, a celebration is never complete without the loud screeches of fireworks shooting into the night sky. 

This sublime local culture shaped Vander Tenedero’s, a pyromusical designer, love for the craft of pyromusical shows—an art he aptly calls, “the marrying of fireworks shows with music,” a reinterpretation of classic fireworks displays not usually accompanied by sound.

Art+ found Vander at the height of Pattaya International Fireworks Festival 2025 in November 2025, where he, together with the Philippine Pyro Enthusiasts Association (PPEA), represented the country’s pyromusical culture with a production titled, “Mushroom Kingdom: Work the Rhythm.”

In this presentation, Vander brought 90s nostalgia to the skies of Thailand through the Super Mario retro classic game, working the rhythm, indeed, in the Mushroom Kingdom—the first setting of the titular game.

For Vander, this is what transforms fireworks production to an art form: the process of playing with the audiences’ senses, the magic that transforms typical chaos of shooting lights to the sky into a beautiful canvas that stirs hearts and minds.

In the ten-minute presentation of “Mushroom Kingdom: Work the Rhythm,” fireworks and music united in a symphony of color and sound—the very core of pyromusical design.

“Combining the correct shapes, patterns, rhythm, and colors already played an important role. Being able to master the mix of these different components elevates the show from being the chaos we usually associate fireworks with into something elegant and rhythmic,” he explained.

Searching for strings of fate

Vander’s journey began with a simple search string.

It was 2005, and Vander, in middle school, was struggling to find something that would define his life. It’s a common phase at that age, with teenagers looking for a purpose in life. 

He realized that none of his interests stuck, jumping from one hobby to another, so instead, he searched for a passion that would last. In this exploration, he found fireworks production, a craft he first knew with the Philippines’ New Year traditions. 

“During these searches, I somehow ended up on dancing fireworks, which brought me to a fireworks forum which discusses the Montreal Fireworks Competition. I saw how advanced the fireworks were in that competition, and I saw how everything went perfectly with music. Since that moment, I have put a lot of time and effort into learning the craft and practicing with whatever software I could afford,” he said.

Thirteen years later, he ended up getting invited to the Montreal Firework Festival in 2018. Their team won an award in the festival, and he ended up being the youngest designer who has won the event—a full-circle moment he would always look back on.

The makings of a pyromusical

For Vander, the most important aspect of a fireworks show is how it’s able to connect with its audience, and this could only be achieved by touching their five senses—an artful symphony of lights and music that does not overwhelm you, but satisfies you. 

However, the process building up to this magical moment is never easy. The complexity of melding music with fireworks is a systematic composition of mindful control that takes time to finish. 

First, he conceptualizes a theme, alongside music that goes well with it. This comes with consideration to the audience’s demographics, as well as the request of clients. You cannot play music that does not align with the age of the viewers or the taste of your clients. 

“I usually pick songs that already give me ideas on what kind of fireworks I can use it with. I like to use music that reminds me of good memories, so if I hear songs I really like while outside or watching a movie, I usually try to note it down for later use,” he explained. 

Vander will then continue to the actual choreography process—a curation of the parts of the music he wants to highlight through fireworks.

After that comes the technical aspects of the show, which includes providing address to each fireworks component so the controller knows what time to shoot each fireworks, identifying all angles fireworks must shoot to make the patterns required for the display, and then the creation of a script that combines everything in a centralized scheme.

Lastly, on what he deems the most laborious part of the job, is the installation of the fireworks show. They install fireworks into tubes called mortars, and connect them in a sequence of numbers in the control system to ensure that the correct firework shoots at its proper moment. Then, they will run a test to check whether all the connections and angles are accurate.

Afterwards, it's time to go. 

Looking up

What strikes Vander as the fruit of their labor is the audience’s reaction to a successful show, as their face slants upwards to the glimmering night sky. There’s a sense of overwhelmingness and a rush of adrenaline that comes from seeing people entranced by his production.

In that regard, when asked of his favorite works, nostalgia filled Vander’s sentences, as he highlighted his first major production, with Dragon Fireworks, in Pyronale 2013 at Berlin, Germany. 

“This is where all the big shows started. Our show unexpectedly spread all over the world through Youtube. It was the first major competition I was a part of, and we just wanted to be able to represent the Philippines well, and did our best. We ended up winning the competition and got the audience award,” he told Art+.

Vander’s second favorite is the Cannes Pyrotechnique Festival 2017 and 2018, which he referred to as the “Cannes Film Festival of the Fireworks World.” 

In these presentations, he, under Dragon Fireworks, clinched the Special Jury Prize (2017), and the Silver Vestale and Audience Award (2018) for the gold edition, where previous champions fought against each other. 

His other favorites were the Montreal Fireworks Festival which ignited his passion for fireworks production, and the Pattaya Fireworks Festival–an event he found monumental as during his three years of participation, Vander represented his own company as a designer. 

Fireworks are the fulfillment of Vander’s passion, a vessel of his heart, an artform. In the marriage of lights and music, the colorful fruit streaks across the sky tell a story only he could narrate. 

So while fireworks symbolize so many things for humanity: a new beginning, good luck, an inspiration to continue a new year—beyond that, it is a beckoning to look up: to find your destiny in the myriad stars, to follow the chaotic explosions and find beauty in the mundane.