Musicians Hnugsaran Prukthaisong and Praatchaya Nanthachai performed live on Kansas Public Radio prior to their appearance with the Topeka Symphony Orchestra.
In Tuesday’s (10/1) Kansas Public Radio, host Cordelia Brown interviews Topeka Symphony Orchestra Music Director Kyle Wylie Pickett and Thai musicians Hnugsaran Prukthaisong and Praatchaya Nanthachai as they prepare for the U.S. premiere of Sound, Echo, and Silence by composer Narong Prangcharoen. “This is the first composition with symphony orchestra featuring the phin and khaen, traditional instruments popular in northeastern Thailand. The phin is a type of lute, usually with three strings, traditionally played with a thin sharp piece of bamboo. The khaen is a free-reed mouth organ of varied-length bamboo pipes with metal reeds. Thai composer Dr. Narong Prangcharoen … received the Charles Ives Award 2021 from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Barlow Prize. In his native country, Prangcharoen was recipient of the Silapathorn Award, naming him a ‘Thailand Contemporary National Artist.’ ”
