Sal for the very first time sang with the LA Master Chorale as a Taft-Hartley singer upon the invitation of Maestro Paul Salamunovich to join the chorale in their 1994-95 closing concert for the season “Belshazzar’s Feast” composed by Sir William Walton. Eventually in the following season he officially joined the LAMC and started his union membership with the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). At the same year (1995-96) and also his first season with the Los Angeles Opera Company he was offered three opera productions: “Stiffelio” by Giuseppi Verdi; “Der fliegende Holländer” by Richard Wagner and “L’elisir d’amore” by Gaetano Donizetti. Maestro Salamunovich offered him some solo assignments in his first year with the chorale and one of them was the ever popular Messiah-Sing-Along. Those productions with both companies kicked-off his musical journey in the Los Angeles area. The following year in 1996 he had his first movie score session “Van Helsing” that also paved his membership with the union Screen Actors Guild and has since recorded a good number of sound recordings for some movies including “Mulan” and John Williams music of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”. One unforgettable event that he considered an “experience-of-a-lifetime” was performing in the recent (3/02/2025) 97th Oscars Awards. Together with some selected members of the LAMC, they backed-up Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in their featured number (Defying Gravity) and the LAMC alone sang Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” (Requiem) in the “Memoriam” segment. 

As an esteemed member of the LA Opera chorus, he has performed in over 150 opera productions with the company, in over 80 different operas presented and performed in their original language. At the same time whenever his schedule allows, he performs with the LAMC and LA Philharmonic in some of their productions whether at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, at the Hollywood Bowl or even out of the country. In 2013 he was one of the 48 selected singers from the LAMC to join the LA Philharmonic’s tour of John Adams’ “The Gospel According to the Other Mary” with performances in London, Lucerne, Paris and New York. Maestro Gustavo Dudamel conducted and with stage direction by Peter Sellars. Yet again, in October 2025 - he is one of the selected singers from the LAMC to join Maestro Dudamel in his last season with the of LA Philharmonic on a Taiwan Tour dubbed “Dudamel Conducts Mahler’s Resurrection”.  

Aside from performances here in Southern California, he has been invited internationally to give some demonstration/lecture concerts. Last year in May, the Canadian Opera Company (COC) invited him to give a lecture cum recital of Philippine music - in observance of Canada’s Asian heritage month. The venue was at the Four Seasons Centre, home of the COC in Toronto. Yet again, in July 2025 he was back in Canada in Orangeville, Ontario thru the invitation of Likha Filipino Cultural Hub in a Lecture cum Recital of Filipino music - from the Pre-Spanish colonial to the early writing of the “Cundiman”, during the American occupation into the Japanese occupation, into the Commonwealth government to the modern writing of “Kundiman” (Philippine Art Song). His performances brought him to Europe - in Heidelberg, Germany (2012) where he collaborated with his former professor in music theory, Dr. Charito Pizarro, former professor at the UP College of Music and the University of Heidelberg. They presented some works of Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines who was a former student in medicine at the same university.They continued on to Berne and Aarburg, Switzerland. The following year (June 12, 2013) he was invited by the Philippine Embassy in Switzerland as special guest in the celebration of the 115th Philippine Independence Day with performances in Zurich. He then proceeded to the city of Schaffhausen where in the morning Dr. Rizal’s 152nd birthday (June 19) the city honored the Philippine National Hero by laying a permanent stone marker where the former Hotel Müller once stood. He and Dr. Maximo Viola were billeted at the hotel during their visit on June 2-3, 1887. Later that evening, Mr. Malaki performed in a concert presented by the city of Schaffhausen to honor Dr. Rizal’s martyrdom and heroism at the city’s Rathaus Auditorium. 

Sal graduated with two degrees from the University of the Philippines College of Music (Bachelor of Music, Voice Major and Teacher’s Diploma, Flute Major). He was a faculty member at the UP College of Music and became a Voice Department chairman at the St. Scholastica’s College, Manila. During his college days at the UP, he became a member and soloist of the UP Madrigal Singers under Prof. Andrea O. Veneracion. He is the only Filipino (or Asian for that matter) who sings regularly in both the LA Opera Company and the LA Master Chorale for the past 30 seasons and counting… 

“Musica, Grata Deo!”