Kuala Lumpur Guitar Ensemble II & Simon Cheong - Memories from Thailand International Guitar Festival 2012
Saturday, 17 November 2012 21:28

 

 

 

 

7 November 2012

A week or so before today, we received notification from Air Asia that our flight has been cancelled! Arrgh...! We managed to book MAS luckily...

Anyway, we arrived at Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport and mind you, the queue at immigration seems always to be a long one and filled with foreigners, so I guess the tourist industry in Thailand is definitely thriving. Well, we were met by one of Nutavut's trusty helpers and there waiting was Maurizio Di Fulvio who had also only just arrived. After reaching the hotel, we put our things down and decided to get down to the cafe for a drink...Maurizio had the same idea...


 

 

8 November 2012

We got up for breakfast and then went back up to our room to practice until lunch time at 12.00 pm before going to the hall where the festival is held for the competition at 1.00 pm. In the first photo below is the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre where the festival is held. The hall is on the fifth floor and in the second photo, we see some of the competitors practicing as we come out from the lift. The third photo shows the entrance to the auditorium with a crowd gathered there and here we have stalls displaying guitars from the Thai Guitar Makers Association, Ratih Mita from Indonesia displaying her guitars, Kim Hee Hong of Korea and there was a shop selling all guitar stuff. The fourth and fifth photos shows Nutavut's new guitar made for him by Kim Hee Hong of Korea. It is a special model named after Nutavut and his girlfriend.

 

 

 

The Junior and Local competition started at 1 p.m., as we were members of the jury, Sew Hong could not take any photos of the participants and there were over 40 of them! My goodness! It was a marathon! Six hours of non-stop judging... we were spent!

 

The competition was divided into different categories. Category A was for the young ones, Category B was for ages up to 16. Here, there were competitors from India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.  Category C was for ages up to 18 and the competitors were mainly Thais except for one from India and an Indonesian who took part in both B & C categories and, the local category.

 

After the competition, came the concerts. Below are some photos with Mr. Nutavut Ratanakarn, MC extraordinaire, addressing the audience and then the performance by Silpakorn Guitar Orchestra (Thailand). They started the festival and finally, Nutavut started as MC extraordinaire is now as Festival director, presenting a bouquet to the leader of the Silpakorn Guitar Orchestra.

 

 

 

 

Following on were Duo NIHZ from Holland, a husband and wife team with Bobby Rootveld on the guitar and Sanna van Elst on recorders. Below are some great shots of them.

 

 

 

 

Here is a photo of KLGE II with this girl whom I had given a class to two years ago and now she is helping out with the festival. Well, after the concert we went back to the hotel for dinner.

 

 

 

 

 



Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 September 2013 19:33