I've always had a soft spot for the Siam Sinfonietta Orchestra … not just because it's great to hear young people play classical music, but also for the soap opera that plays out constantly behind the scenes as it struggles to remain in existence.
Here is a bunch of 60 students aged 16-24 years playing classical music, popping up every so often at the Thai Cultural Centre to perform concerts as eclectic as Mahler symphonies and the music from Star Wars.
They have a following among that slice of society which enjoys classical music, both Thai and expat. You may be surprised how big that slice is -- Thailand has a healthy classical music playing field if you search it out. There is the National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, all of whose concerts we should be attending and supporting.
The Siam Sinfonietta is technically the youth arm of the Siam Philharmonic Orchestra, or Opera Siam. Their concerts are entertaining as they mix classical music with more than a sprinkling of showmanship.
That's primarily owing to them being under the helm of Somtow Sucharitkul, the world's only classical music composer-conductor who also writes best-selling science fiction novels.
If we were to compare this youth orchestra to that of a person, it would be a precocious but talented teenager who, now and again, starts gasping for air like an asthmatic.
Like so many classical orchestras, Siam Sinfonietta is strapped for cash. It exists thanks to donations from sympathetic corporations, generous patrons and the occasional government contribution. Why the government doesn't get behind such orchestras and fund them to the hilt is beyond my comprehension -- they are the best ambassadors for the country.
Last week they returned from a triumphant tour of Europe. Somtow and his 60 proteges packed their bags and set off on a two-week stint of eight concerts in eight cities in Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
It was a great success, in part due to the novelty of an Asian orchestra playing Western-style classical music written by Thais.
Part of the repertoire was excerpts from a new opera Somtow has written set in Auschwitz. I had some difficulty wrapping my head around that one … a Thai orchestra playing European music written by a Thai about a European incident. That's a far cry from what one would expect from a visiting foreign classical ensemble, namely, a programme featuring the Blue Danube, Beethoven's 5th and perhaps a solo Fur Elise by the precious pianist.
Instead, their repertoire consisted of original classical music from five different Thai composers. For that they received standing ovations, and one concert was televised throughout 54 countries in and around Europe.
And if you didn't hear about that success, don't be surprised.
To date, media reports of the tour have amounted to zero. There was a review of one concert right here in the Bangkok Post, but nothing in the Thai language media about it. When you look at it that way, this week's column is a scoop!
It takes a lot of effort to get 60 kids off to Europe for two weeks. Unlike sporting delegations, where freeloading officials often outnumber athletes, just five staff members looked after five dozen exuberant musicians. They travelled around in a bus manned by a cantankerous Eastern European. In Munich they slept in the basement of a Thai temple.
This is the ninth year of Siam Sinfonietta, which means next year Somtow celebrates a decade of constantly standing on the precipice of financial ruin as he scrambles to find funds to keep the youth orchestra alive.
Back in 2012, for instance, they threw a spanner in the classical music world works by winning an international competition in Vienna. What are the chances of an Asian orchestra making the finals? It was such a great story. A bunch of Asian kids going to Europe to compete in a European music festival. What could they know about the intricacy, the finesse, the nuances of Western classical music over the Europeans?
The answer is -- a lot. They won the competition!
Somtow relied on the kindness of both strangers and friends in rallying together enough funds for that trip. Despite their international success, nobody really jumped up and down here in Thailand.
It happened again in 2016, but this time things were way more dramatic.
In that year they went to Germany and the Czech Republic during the European opera season to perform The Silent Prince, Somtow's opera about the life of Buddha. Promised government funding for the tour was pulled out from under them in the middle of the tour thanks to bureaucratic red tape here. There was the very real threat that the 70 kids would be stranded in Europe with no money, no food or accommodation and no way of getting home.
Thais are a very generous people in times of crisis. Somtow says he didn't sleep for three nights as he called all his well-connected friends who finally bailed him out.
But back to last week's European tour.
It feels kind of sad to think that while the orchestra was doing its bit in pushing a positive image of Thailand abroad, we in the Land of Smiles were oblivious to it. We were more interested in the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of a model named Lunlabelle, or viral footage of an effeminate monk (known among his followers as "Auntie Monk") hugging a male shop assistant.
The Thai government is acutely concerned about its image outside the country. Look at the trepidation whenever Thailand is thrust into the international spotlight following a gruesome murder of a foreign tourist. Look at the deer-in-the-headlights reaction to the current dust pollution, which reeks of worries about Chinese tourist numbers more than concerns about the local population's health.
And yet when something really good happens overseas -- not of a sporting nature -- the response is nil.
This is despite the originality of what they did. There was new music by Bruce Gaston, Trisdee Na Patalung, Voraprach Wongsathapornpat and Pantawit Kiangsiri. Pantawit himself is an interesting study -- a young Thai classical musician writing music for TV shows in Hollywood.
A suite from Somtow's upcoming opera, Helena Citrónová, was well received. The opera is the true story of a Slovak Jew who had a relationship with a Nazi in Auschwitz, which a reviewer from Prague Music Connection found "beautiful and terrifying".
I've said it before -- in a perfect world, a triumph like this should end in a cavalcade through the streets of Bangkok. These kids should be on every TV show in town, the better-looking members acting in local soaps and doing TV ads for skin lightening creams. There should be a set of Siam Sinfonietta collectable dolls available with each purchase of a Big Mac.
It took 7 million baht to get them over there. Somtow is indebted to Bangkok Bank and Singha for contributions along with friends and patrons who came to the party. The Minister for Culture, Itthipol Khunpluem, wired over 200,000 baht out of his own pocket, for instance, since new budgets for the new government weren't ready in time.
"I'm 2 million in debt," said Somtow this week, sounding just like every father I know trying to give their kids a thorough education. "But we did it. They realise Thailand has some great musicians and composers. We have things to say that they'd never heard before."
It's time for us to listen as well.
