11 November

The final round of the International Guitar Competition started at 11 am. Here they are:-

In order from left to right - Pernon Augustin (France), Francisco Arief Wuryanato (Indonesia), Samuel Klemke (Germany), Franco Maigue (Philippines) & Daniela Luksic (Chile).

During our discussions after the final round, we had some problems which needed to be resolved and we had to help Nutavut out with this problem. A special round was granted with a special certificate presentation made.

Memories of Phatanasab Sabkoontawee of Thailand.

Members of the jury with Nutavut Ratanakarn

Today is the last day of the festival and the evening concert started with KLGE II –

I had a separate billing and played my solo after KLGE II –

I was supposed to have played a solo in the 2011 Thailand International Guitar Festival & Competition but had met with an unfortunate motor accident in July 2011. I almost died and spent 10 days in ICU with a broken collar bone, shoulder bone, ribs broken in 10 parts, hip bone broken in 4 parts, a broken femur and the one that almost killed me – a punctured lung! Well, as if all the other broken parts weren’t enough! A harrowing time it was which saw me spending at least 2 to 3 months not being able to move about but lie flat on my back staring into the ceiling. Thankfully for my wife, Evelyn, who gave me full emotional support, without which I wonder if I would have been able to pull through? She spent every moment with me for a full month lying in the most uncomfortable deck chairs in really cold air conditioning room as well as being fearful sleeping beside me in a hospital room...! And, having to wake up to massage my leg... I started developing ‘restless leg’ syndrome that caused me to have sleeping problems which I have until now. Hopefully having gone to see a doctor specializing in sleep disorders last Monday (21 January 2013) will help me.

Well, there were many well wishers and I take this opportunity to thank them.

Getting back to the point, I took many years to get back on my feet to want to play solo again. My last full length solo performance was in 1985. For about twenty years since 1985 I spent my life with many other things and teaching the guitar was just a profession that put food on the table. Although I started the Society in 1991, the Society was only registered in 1992 and all its activities were for the promotion of the guitar. I spent my time promoting my students in performance and created the Guitar Camp. Sadly, all activities had to come to a standstill after 1997 as Malaysia went through a bad economic downturn.

It was in 2004 that the Society started again and has been in full swing since. It was also around this time that I decided to form KLGE II. The intention is to give performances and I played a minor role within the group, giving important parts to my students but as things developed, I was forced into a leading role.

It was in 2007, that I decided to play solo again but in a shared concert situation. I played M. Pujol’s no 2, 4&5 of his Cinq Preludios. My performance was encouraging, and I decided to premiere my teacher’s (John Duarte) piece which was written for the Society in 1996, ‘Variations on an Indonesian Song op 124 (Gubahanku)’ in the following year 2008. In 2009, again I played solo for fifteen minutes in Chiangmai as well as in Bangkok International Guitar Festival 2009. Once again, I had a short stint playing a solo item within KLGE II’s programme in 2010 Thailand International Guitar Festival.

Well, that was all the performance experience that I had got within the last few years. November 2010 was the last until November 2012 in the Thailand International Guitar Festival and I had requested to play solo separately from KLGE II. Hence, for the first time after my last full length recital in 1985, I was presenting a 30-40 minutes second half of a programme. I managed through with some memory lapses and with pain from my hips. As in the above photo, I had to stand up and make my apologies as the pain was getting to me and I needed a rest from the playing position. Overall, I was pleased and am encouraged to give more performances. As I have been telling my students – the only way to learn performing is to perform! I hope to improve my performance in time to come with more performances.

Here is the bouquet presentation:-