LEX VON L. SUMAYO (born 1977) is a Filipino musician known for his solo guitar renditions of original Filipino music (OPM) on YouTube and is the author of 9 eBooks and printed books containing his arrangements of close to 500 songs for the solo guitar. These solo guitar arrangements became instant hit initially to Filipino guitarists and music enthusiasts and later to anyone from anywhere in the world, both beginners and senior guitarists, because of the simple, catchy and warm sound in each arrangement. He has likewise got the attention of professional players who found his work a useful resource for their own works or gigs. He has a website that features OPM for Solo Guitar Projects to promote Filipino music to young generations and POP for Solo Guitar for everyone to appreciate.
Lex was born in Valenzuela City to a Visayan father (Celedonio Sumayo, Bachelor of Arts graduate) and Marinduqueñan mother (Ida Labrador, BSED graduate). Basically self-taught on the guitar, Lex learned the techniques by simply listening to Beatle records with the aid only of Jingle songbooks.
After finishing an Associate Diploma in Nautical Engineering, he shifted his path to his passion – MUSIC. He enrolled at PWU College of Music (Taft) in 1998 and graduated with a Bachelor of Music Major in Music Education degree and a Music Teacher’s Diploma in Classical Guitar Performance in 2004.
His only classical guitar teacher was Edgardo de Dios whom he considered as the “spark” on his classical guitar playing. Two semesters of Fretboard Harmony with Maestro Jose Valdez on the other hand prepared him for solo guitar arranging.
Before moving to Dubai, he was an occasional session player. He performed background guitar music for ABS-CBN’s Recuerdo de Amor for a few episodes. After this stint, he focused more on his music teaching job at San Jose Academy in Navotas City.
As an arranger, he has worked on a-hundred-plus songs, arranging them for solo guitar. As an educator and leader, he has taught and guided young students studying guitar in Dubai. He also established a guitar orchestra (JMC Guitar Orchestra) for these gifted students.
Aside from performing and arranging guitar music, Lex is also a music copyist. He provided the score for the Doy Laurel’s Documentary Film (music by Sabrina Villaflor). He also worked at Faithful Servant Marketing and encoded Maestro Jose Valdez’s guitar arrangements (Piano Masterpieces for the Guitar Volumes 1, 2 & 3, Religious and Inspirational Books, etc.). At present, he is also encoding arrangements and compositions of Angelito Agcaoili.
He also collaborated with Director J.E. Tiglao on the film “Moth In Twilight” (Tropfest Finalist 2014), and composed the background music for it.
Lex currently resides in Dubai with his wife. He founded the LVS Works in 2017 and has since focused working online as a music arranger and composer.