Wednesday, November 7th, 2012 – 7.30 pm. at The Siam Society (Pre Concert talk in English by the composer Saksri Pang Vongtaradon at 6.30 p.m.)
Faculty of Music, Silpakorn University and The Siam Society under the royal patronage present a recital for Violin and Piano By Tasana Nagavajara and Pornphan Banternghansa.
The duo has performed widely in Asia and Europe including a performance at the historic Mendelssohn House in Leipzig in July 2011. This year Tasana led the Bangkok Pro Musica on a tour to London, The Hague, Brussels and Berlin while Pornphan performed series of Piano recitals in Bayreuth, Germany and Taiwan.
The program featuring Sonata in G major Op.78 by Johannes Brahms and Sonata in D major Op 94a by Sergei Prokofiev. The duo will also perform a world premiere “Sea of Solitude” by Saksri Pang Vongtaradon, Bangkok prominent jazz pianist and scholar.
Programme:
Saksri Pang Vongtaradon: Sea Of Solitude (World Premiere)
Johannes Brahms: Sonata No.1 in G Major
Sergei Prokofiev: Sonata No.2 in D Major
TasanaNagavajara,Violin
Coming from the Thai classical instrument, Saw Duang, TASANA NAGAVAJARA started learning the violin at the age of 9. His Thai teachers include Suphot Chomboon, Sutin Srinarong and Choochart Pitaksakorn. The turning point in his musical education came in 1989 when he was granted a full scholarship by the International Menuhin Music Academy (IMMA) to study with Alberto Lysy and Johannes Eskar in Switzerland, thus having the golden opportunity to become a member of the Camerata Lysy Gstaad which performed under Lord Yehudi Menuhin in most major European cities, USA, Canada and South America. Further training then took place with Roland Baldini at Vorarlberg Conservatory in Austria, and with Kathryn Lucktenberg at the University of Oregon, Eugene, USA.
Upon returning home, Tasana became a founding member of the Faculty of Music at Silpakorn University, and he has also functioned as its Deputy Dean and Director of its Summer Music School (since 2005). As a professional musician, he has performed the major violin concerti with Thailand’s leading orchestras, as well as serving as Concertmaster of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra under Hikotaro Yazaki for 10 consecutive seasons. He was also a recipient of a Princess Galyani Vadhana scholarship to attend a prestigious violin master class by Hrachya Hrutyunian in Neustadt, Germany. Recently, he was entrusted by the founder of the Pro Musica Orchestra, H.E. Privy Counsellor Mom Luang Usni Pramoj, with the responsibility of reviving the orchestra in the capacity of its Concertmaster, and that endeavor culminated in a very successful tour of Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in September 2012.
Building on his early experience at IMMA, which allowed him to perform chamber music with Alberto Lysy at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires in 1991, Tasana has kept up his international activities, being the first Thai musician to be invited to give a recital at the historic Mendelssohn House in Leipzig, Germany, in July 2011. Since 2011 he has been asked to act as faculty member at the annual Summer Music Festival in Lanciano, Italy, where he also performed chamber music with principal players from I di Roma and the Orchestre National de France.
Pornphan Banternghansa, Piano
As a distinguished pianist and pedagogue, Dr. Pornphan Banternghansa,is frequently featured both as a soloist and a chamber musician in concerts locally and internationally.
Pornphan has participated in numerous music festivals including the Salzburg College Summer Program, Chautauqua Music Festival and Aspen Music Festival. She was also selected as the first ever pianist from Thailand to participate in the prestigious Verbier Academy in Switzerland and received a scholarship from HRH Princess Galayani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra. While at Verbier she received public masterclasses held by world renowned pianists such as Dimitri Bashkirov, Nelson Georner, and Claude Frank.
She has also worked with Joseph Kalichstein, Gabriel Chodos, Mikhail Kopelman, Logan Skelton, Robert Levin and Paul Badura-Skoda.
Pornphan received a Bachelor’s degree doubling major in Piano Performance and Composition as a full scholarship recipient from the University of Miami under Rosalina Sackstein. Upon graduation, she was also awarded ‘Outstanding Student in Music Composition, Traditional and Media Writing’. As a recipient of a Collaborative Piano Graduate Award, she held a Doctoral of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music studying with Professor Rebecca Penneys while she was also a teaching assistant for a piano literature class at Eastman, a staff accompanist at Ithaca College and serves as a faculty at Community School of Music in Ithaca, NY. Pornphan is currently a piano faculty at Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
