(Sound of violin)
(Applause)
Thank you.
I was born in a musical family.
Many of my forefathers had dreamt of becoming musicians.
Most of them got caught up
in a mainstream profession or academic career.
And actually, they did very well.
But I myself, I was determined, however,
to become the musician.
And now I'm a full-time professional musician.
My grandfather was an educator
and became the headmaster of many leading high-schools in Bangkok.
He was also the manager of a well-known
Thai traditional music ensemble.
I think -- I mean he cannot really play --
I think he enjoyed being close to the music and to the musicians.
When my aunt returned home from her study in the West,
she brought back lots of Western music recordings to my house,
which had a great effect on my father and my uncle,
who grew up with this LP vinyl collection,
which included Rimsky Korsakov’s symphonic poem Scheherazade
which I have just played for you.
I, myself, also grew up with my father's huge LP collection,
mainly Western classical music.
When I was about 5 years old,
I was able to memorize
many many symphonies of Beethoven
and conducted along with them --
I mean conducting is not as difficult as this.
And the sound of this kind of music,
Western classical music and the orchestra,
made a really deep impression on me.
I started music lessons for the first time on Saw Duang,
which is a Thai traditional instrument with two strings.
And I began to realise that I had some talent in music.
A year later I took up lessons on the violin.
And with the basic for the Thai fiddle,
I could somehow transfer the skills,
and adapt to the violin,
and add to my long experience
of listening to classical music since birth.
I think I had a good start.
The turning point for me was when the great violinist, Alberto Lysy,
visited Thailand in 1988.
I just played for him and that brief moment changed my life.
Alberto Lysy suddenly gave me an opportunity
to go and study in Switzerland
at one of the most prestigious music institutions in Europe,
the International Menuhin Music Academy.
This is a very rare chance to get into such a famous place.
I went on to study music in Austria and America.
I spent almost 11 years
studying and playing abroad before returning home to Thailand.
Many of my friends asked me,
Why do I want to come back to Thailand?
Do I have any job or any opportunity to play a concert?
And my answer is always the same.
I wanted to come back. I wanted to create something special.
I think I was convinced that I could be useful
to the music scene in Thailand
especially to young Thai musicians.
When I came back in 2000 -- the year 2000 I came back,
I started teaching right away.
Because in those days,
it's quite impossible to make a living just playing concerts.
And despite my additional workload
as concert master of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra
for 10 years,
and I got a full-time teaching position
at Silpakorn University
in their brand-new Faculty of Music.
I really enjoy teaching as much as playing.
To see new faces entering our school every year
and work closely with them for 4 years,
is quite a challenge.
In 2005, we began to expand
the musical training beyond the confines of our university.
We started the Silpakorn Summer Music School,
which I'll refer to as the SSMS.
SSMS had around 20 students playing chamber music in small groups
in the first few years,
with more and more students joining and participating.
Today it has become a big --
a real symphony orchestra counted with over 120 students.
We provide a unique opportunity for students,
all eager to learn, to come together and make music.
These students are --
most of them are inexperienced.
They vary from the very well-trained
to those who are not at all well-trained.
But during this special week,
we try our best to create
the most ideal environment
for them to learn and to work together.
During the week, we work really hard
and also have a great time together.
Last year, these students, Thai students,
really played the symphonic poem by Rimsky Korsakov, Scheherazade, quite well.
And I will show you the example of the previous year on Ravel's Boléro.
(Music)
(Applause)
16 years ago, no one could never ever have dreamt
of something like this happening in Thailand.
It's one of our most successful projects
and has a great impact on Thai musical society.
The other story, our university --
another project of our university is the so-called
"music talent program".
At that time in 2007,
we had a kind of a political connection with a small province
near Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai called Payao.
This is a very beautiful province, with lakes. It's really nice.
At that time, the governor of Payao
had the idea of turning the town into
a Vienna of the East,
as the music centre.
This became a big project
and we even brought the orchestra from Bangkok to perform there.
I still remember driving into the little town of Payao
and seeing a big billboard of myself holding a violin.
We also started the "music talent program"
in cooperation with a boarding school,
located in the mountains nearby;
a very, very nice boarding school.
And we were hoping that the whole thing
would turn Payao into the mountain musical paradise,
like Aspen, Colorado,
or Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland.
And from the beginning,
this music talent program was a big hit.
It was wide-reported in the press.
It was taking the full page in the Bangkok Biz News.
It was very well-known at that time.
In those days, I flew up north once a month to Chiang Rai,
rented a car, drove a hundred kilometers to teach,
stayed overnight, drove back to Chiang Rai,
and flew back to Bangkok to work.
And actually it was fun for me.
It was like a dream.
It was a dream of making a dream come true.
You may have guessed the final outcome.
Vienna of the East didn't last for very long.
It didn't work at all.
When the governor was transferred somewhere else,
the political wind changed,
the whole project was gone.
Just like that. Just gone.
At that time we had around 20 high school students
in our music talent program.
They were sadly abandoned.
Everything was over.
So, what did we do?
We tried our best to take care of their future education,
cause we felt responsible for these students' lives.
In the end, half of the students went on to another music program
in a boarding school in Bangkok
and half of them came to Chiang Mai.
We founded Montfort School here,
which was already active with their own string orchestra.
And our students from the music talent program
have made new friendships in their new home in Chiang Mai.
So at least we have a happy ending with the story.
And here they are!
(Applause)
This is the combined orchestra of students from Silpakorn summer music school,
the former music talent program students
and the Montfort string orchestra.
The students come from many, many provinces in Thailand:
from Nan, Chiang Mai, Mae Sot, Bangkok.
So we'll play Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel.
(Music)
(Applause and cheering)
Thank you very much.
I have never regretted coming home and following my musical career.
Here I have a chance to create something very special.
And the most enjoyable time for me is to make music with these young musicians.
Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause)