Young classical guitar virtuoso Irin Prechanvinit is selling a cherished musical instrument she considers her "best buddy" to pay for her mother's cancer treatment.
Heartstrings: Irin Prechanvinit is selling her 'best buddy' Kazuo Sato Prestige 2011 guitar to fund her mother's treatment.
Irin, who left Bangkok to study at the Royal Conservatoire in the Netherlands six years ago, announced on social media last week her Kazuo Sato Prestige 2011 guitar was up for sale.
"It's been everything in my life for the past six years," said the 23-year-old classical guitarist.
In the past two weeks Irin has sold five guitars, but "Sato" is the last and most expensive with a price tag of 500,000 baht. Irin, who says she doesn't have many friends, doubled the price from her latest guitar sale "for the sake of our bonding".
Irin played the guitar on her first studio album Forest Paintings, which was released by the UK-based classical music label First Hand Records late last year. "The feedback was good. I have got good reviews," she said.
Just as she was about to go on a promotional tour last December, Irin abruptly changed her plans and returned to Thailand to be with her mother who was diagnosed with cancer and taken to hospital for treatment.
"The cancer had spread very fast from her lung to spleen, liver, brain and bones," Irin told the Bangkok Post Sunday.
"We need the money to treat my mother. And we had to sell everything we had."
When her father put the family home on the market and it did not sell, Irin reasoned she could unload her guitars quickly.
"I was surprised," she said. "Each was sold immediately after I posted it on social media. Some said they were waiting for me to sell my guitars."
The first four guitars she sold went for between 40,000 and 80,000 baht each, not enough to cover the cost of the cancer treatment at Bumrungrad Hospital, said Irin.
Alone by Irin Prechanvinit (Video credit: YouTube user )
The most expensive one she has sold so far is a Karl-Heinz Rommich instrument she originally bought for 190,000 baht.
"The nurse told me she would require 200,000 baht the next day for Keytruda, a cancer medicine, for my mum," Irin said.
"I looked around and there was nothing much left for sale. I put my Rommich on sale and fetched 150,000 baht, just in time to pay for the Keytruda medicine."
Irin said she has been surprised by the social media feedback with people expressing sympathy for her mother's illness and some even making small donations. "I am grateful to everyone," she said.
Irin, an only child, began playing guitar at the age of 10 and studied at the College of Music at Mahidol University. She has performed at many guitar festivals in Thailand and overseas and is part of a small clique of Thai musicians recognised outside the country.
She was scheduled to attend guitar festivals in the UK and Japan this year and record her second album in June. Irin has already received an offer to continue her master's studies in the UK after graduation.
But spending months watching her mother bedridden in the ICU unit has made her reassess her priorities. She had planned to become a renowned classical guitarist, but now thinks a career as a musician doesn't help people much.
"Now I am more interested in music therapy to cure patients," she said. "I will not give up music. But I want to think we have to live more purposely and I want my music to help people."
A buyer has already shown interest in her beloved Sato. For Irin there will be no regrets. "I can always find new guitars, but not a new mother. This is the time I have to choose between the two things I love the most, and I choose my mother."