Recital for the Queen
Chaiyaporn Pookhaothong, a talented Thai classical pianist residing in Britain, will be back to give a recital to mark HM the Queen’s 84th birthday at Sala Sudasiri Sobha, Lat Phrao Soi 41, on Sunday at 4pm.
As a prize winner of various competitions for his performances of Schumann’s works, he will open the programme with Schumann’s wistful Arabeske Op 18 in C Major and conclude the evening with his demanding, yet joyful Carnaval Op 9.
He will also perform Piano Sonata No. 2 “Homage to King Rama IX” composed by his piano teacher Nat Yontararak.
Chaiyaporn rose to fame after winning the piano competition organised by the National Youth Bureau. He was 15 when he made his concerto debut with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ovchinikov.
He is the only Thai musician under HM the Queen’s royal patronage in the history of classical music in Thailand and also the first Thai student ever accepted to Purcell School, a world-renowned specialist music school for children in Britain.
He went on to study at the Trinity College of Music and the Royal College of Music in London where he was granted the coveted Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholarship. He has given numerous concerts as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber music player in Russia, the US, Japan, Austria and Thailand and has recently toured northeast England.
He is teaching more than 70 students in schools in Oxford, as well as teaching part time at the Royal College of Music.
Tickets cost 700 baht and proceeds will go towards the Gift of Life Foundation to help needy blood-disease patients in Thailand.