Lucrecia "King" Roces Kasilag was born in San Fernando, La Union Philippines, the third of the six children of Marcial Kasilag Sr., a civil engineer, and his wife Asuncion Roces Ganancial, a violinist and a violin teacher.

Kasilag later studied under Doña Pura Villanueva, during which time performed her first public piece, Felix Mendelssohn's May Breezes, at a student recital when she was ten years old.

[4] After completing her studies, Kasilag made an international tour as a concert pianist, but eventually had to give up a performing career due to a congenital weakness in one hand.

She is credited for having written more than 350 musical compositions, ranging from folksongs to opera to orchestral works, and was composing up to the year before she died, at age 89.

[citation needed] Lucrecia Roces Kasilag died due to pneumonia on August 16, 2008, fifteen days before her 90th birthday, in Manila, Philippines.