Yves Baron was the presenter at the May 18 meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC). The PCEC periodically invites musicians to a “Words and Music” meeting where they entertain as well as talk about their life. Yves has lived and worked in Paris, Los Angeles and Bangkok. He has produced and participated in over 3500 shows over the world. In addition to being a master vocal coach at Bangkok’s Superstar Academy, he arranges for entertainers at various venues as well as performing himself at clubs and restaurants in Bangkok and Pattaya.
Highly charismatic, Yves is a multi-talented singer and guitarist who learned to play classical guitar with maestro Jean-Luc Derhy. He mentioned that he is Thai and French, or in other words a mixture of “Pad Thai and French Baguette”. He said he was conceived in Thailand, but born in France. He then described his background and how he became interested in music and the people he met along the way that played a part in his development as an entertainer in both Opera and Pop music.
His father who worked for the UN was sent to Thailand where he met Yves’ mother. His father returned to France with his mother before he was born. He mentioned that his parents were big music fans, mostly classical but his mother also liked jazz, thus he was exposed to music at an early age.
He mentioned that he was 13 when he told his parents he wanted to be a musician. Further, that during his teen years he liked to listen to songs on the radio. Although he didn’t speak English, he tried to imitate the sounds. He also taped songs he had written and then listened to the tape. He said he was unknowingly training his voice.
During his high school years in the afternoon, he said he would attend a club where a DJ would play music for a teen audience as the club limited afternoon entrance for teens aged 14 to 17. After paying an admission charge, once inside they received free drinks and snacks as they listened to the music. But he wanted to be more than just a spectator, so he volunteered to hand out Flyers for the club which gained him free admission. This was his start that led to his becoming a promoter to finance his musical passion. He became a party promoter for some of Paris’s biggest night clubs. He then became co-owner of a night club, before deciding to sing Opera as a full-time job.
He described how this later devolved into singing popular songs in an operatic style which is commonly known as “Pop Opera” and demonstrated his enormous talent by singing a few songs during his presentation; thus, revealing why he is known as “Le Tenor”, a skill that requires one to hit the high notes.
Upon conclusion of his talk, MC Ren Lexander brought everyone up to date on the latest events. This was followed by George Wilson conducting the Open Forum where attendees can make comments or ask questions about Expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya. For more information about the PCEC, visit their website at https://pcec.club. To view a video of presentation, visit the PCEC’s YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/nTpUZXm-5AQ. To see a video of Yves singing at the Jazz Pit Club Pattaya, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHUDDHjjGDY.
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