Harping on in the Bangkok Post

More harp news from Asia, and another example of what energetic people, passionate about the harp, can achieve.  Sunida Kitiyakara has kindly sent us this article in Saturday's Bangkok Post, about Thai harpist Phuttaraksa Kamnirdratana.  Now a rising star of Thai classical music, Phuttaraksa began her harp studies at the Tamnak Prathom Harp Centre, the wonderful institution that Sunida runs, and the first place to offer harp lessons in Thailand.  Phuttaraksa went on to win the Yamaha Asia 2004 scholarship, and then a scholarship to the University of Miami.  Now she has a full scholarship to continue at doctoral level.  It looks as if the wheel will turn full circle:  "once I have fulfilled my dream, I will definitely return to Thailand and become a harp teacher for young Thai musicians."

Don't forget that Sunida is offering five scholarships to the under-16 competition as part of the First Tamnak-Prathom Thailand International Harp Festival and Youth Competition.  Each scholarship will offer a return air ticket and accommodations for seven days in Bangkok. The organizing committee will provide special escort and supervision for those whose parents cannot accompany them.

Interested parties are asked to send:

1.A detailed curriculum vitae of their music studies and any musical activities they have undertaken, and any prizes won.

2.A letter of recommendation from their teacher/s and school.

3.Parent's written approval.

The letters (in English, French or Spanish) together with the application form, must reach the Organizing Committee BEFORE JULY15 via email at info@tamnakprathom.net . Only five names will be selected by the committee and the winners will be informed by the end of July.Please include own email as well as home address and telephone number.

Previous winners of top international competitions are not eligible for the scholarship.

In the Bangkok Post, Phuttaraksa is pictured playing the magnificent Oriane harp in rose gold that Bangkok's Mahidol University recently bought. 

The beginning of the newspaper article, "Phuttaraksa Kamnirdratana's father once joked the reason she stayed single during her college life was because boys were afraid to date her, as they wouldn't want to help her carry a 30-kg harp from her dorm to a concert hall every day", reminds me of one of my favourite  occurences of the harp in literature.

"Sylphid was beginning to play professionally, and she was subbing as second harpist in the orchestra at Radio City Music Hall.  She was called pretty regularly, once or twice a week, and she'd also got a job playing at a fancy restaurant in the East Sixties on Friday night.  Ira would drive her from the Village up to the restaurant with her harp and then go and pick her and the harp up when she finished.  He had the station wagon, and he'd pull up in front of the house and go inside and have to carry it down the stairs.  The harp is in its felt cover, and Ira puts one hand on the column and one hand in the sound hole at the back and he lifts it up, lays the harp on a mattress they keep in the station wagon, and drives Sylphid and the harp uptown to the restaurant.  At the restaurant he takes the harp out of the car and, big radio star that he is, he carries it inside.  At ten-thirty, when the restaurant is finished serving dinner and Sylphid's ready to come back to the Village, he goes around to pick her up and the whole operation is repeated.  Every Friday.  He hated the physical imposition that it was - those things weigh about eighty pounds - but he did it.  I remember that in the hospital, when he had cracked up, he said to me, 'She married me to carry her daughter's harp! That's why the woman married me! To haul that harp!'"

Philip Roth - I Married A Communist