ABOUT THE TOUR

A TOUR OF DIVERSITY IN THAI MUSIC.

Nat Yontararak, Thailand’s leading contemporary artist, is bringing a cultural experience to Europe and Russia. Nat has always known to bring out such balance between Thai motifs and western musical structure. This makes his music tangible for international audience as well as the Thais. His interest in writing Thai piano solo pieces led him to discover a whole world of classical Thai music. This was often pieces traditionally performed in palace courts. He was particularly interested in all the royal compositions. However, for the past few years, Nat started to expand his interest into Thai folk culture as shown in his later compositions.

This year 2019 ’s performance “Court to Common: From Thai Classical to Thai Folk Music” will bring the audience deeper into Thai culture. The first part of the programme will feature a movement from Nat’s first sonata “Glory to Our Great Kings”. It will focus on all the royal compositions of various monarchs of the Chakri dynasty, the ancestors of our current King Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X). The music will weave through the musical history of Thailand from 18th Century to today, from the influence of classical Thai music to jazz as it was the preference of the late King Bhumibol (Rama IX).

​

Together with this movement, the audience will then be transported to a particular region of Thailand, 'Isaan', or the northeastern region through another movement from Nat's third sonata, "Siam Sonata". In this section, the musical dialect of Isaan and its fun dances and costume will be shown along with the music from this region written by Nat.

In the second part of the programme, Nat will perform his latest composition - "The Prodigal Son Suite" - inspired by Thai folk drama or “Likay”. This is one of the most popular kind of theatre appreciated by the people. Likay is very similar to a western opera or a musical in a way that it has all the same features. It includes music, dance, and drama. It is often performed in all temple fairs and other kinds of festivities around Thailand. As it includes drama, the story of this suite will be an adaptation of the famous “Prodigal Son” from the Bible.

To better capture the melodramatic aspect of Likay, Nat thought of adding percussive elements to his latest music. This will be performed by Łukasz Kurzydło, a talented Polish percussionist. Both of them will take you on a journey through the story of “The prodigal son”, adapted from the Bible. 

As Thai instruments are mostly percussive, Łukasz’s performance will represent the Thai flavour to the sound of piano. His western musical background will be of great help when merging such varied instruments together. His understanding of the structure of piano music is imperative for any percussionist working with this kind of work.

Lastly, all the performance will be accompanied by four dancers from Christian Communication Institute, Payap University. They have been working with Nat for years and have been great in helping the audience visualise Nat’s music through movements. In 2017, they went with Nat in his “Homage to the great Thai kings” tour in Italy, France, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, and Bahrain, and were widely received everywhere they went.

This performance will bring an even more enriching cultural experience of Thailand through music and dance. With the first half concentrating on the royal tradition of music to the later part that brings out the common folk culture to the scene, Thailand will be presented like never before

​