Anupama at Indian by Nature March 28th

Another Sitar Genius

Anupama Bhagwat, sitar

accompanied by Sandip Ghosh, tabla

plays the magnificent Raag Malkauns 

and other ragas

Sunday, 27th March at 7pm

Winner of All India Radio Competition 1994

"Disciple of a sitar legend, destined to be a legend in her time"

"Tremendous control of the sitar ... a sheer delight to listen to." 

Attenborough Arts Centre

"Spontaneous, versatile, grounded" The Hindu

"...full of substance, fluent ease and confidence" www.gurdain.com

"...incredible talent". R. Girouard

Anupama Bhagwat is one of the most brilliant sitar players of her generation. She is a disciple of sitar legend, Bimalendu Mukherjee, father and guru of one of the greatest living sitar players, Budhaditya Mukherjee (who, in his youth, was likened to Jimmy Hendrix for his extraordinary virtuosity). She has performed in the US, both east and west coasts, Switzerland, Paris and at the most prestigious Indian music festival in London at the Southbank, The Darbar Festival. She has twice been invited to perform at the Dover Lane Music Conference, one of the most important music festivals in India. I heard Anupama, live, at the recent Dover Lane Music Conference (January 2016) and her performance left me speechless. This is a talent not to be missed.

The music: The program will include the great raga, Raag Malkauns, which is a major raga in Indian music with a great history of lore and legend. The name purportedly means, 'He who wears serpents as garlands', a reference to Shiva. Legend has it that the raga was created by Parvati, Shiva's wife, in order to placate him after dancing the 'Tandava' dance - the dance of creation. The raga has been described as "the expression of pathos through melody". It is said to have supernatural powers, which, if rendered correctly, can conjure spirits. It has also been described as "one of the moody close cousins of the blues".

Shiva performs the Tandava Dance

Anupama's recording of Raag Malkauns inspired me to invite her to Eelswamp. Her rendition is superb. It easily brings to mind the quote of musicologist, Vasudev Murty, 

"I rule over the emotions. I cause the deepest and gravest feelings to swirl slowly around you just as the Milky Way with millions of stars moves imperceptibly around a central point."
~ Malkauns -What the Ragas Told Me.

Finally, let me assure you that the Magnificent Malkauns will enrapture you whether you are versed with Indian music or not. According to musicologist Ramshreya Jha, Malkauns is 

"Easy for the beginner and challenging  for the most accomplished artist ... as pleasing to the ears of a listener who has just begun to appreciate it, as it is for a music connoisseur". I'll second that!

Join me on Sunday 27th March for a special opportunity to hear an exceptional talent perform the Magnificent Malkauns.

Reservations: 1,000 baht per person.

Email asiachart@hotmail.com for reservations. For more information call 038 069681 during office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: can be found at the bottom of this page:http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html. If you haven't been to Eelswamp before I strongly urge you to find the venue before the day of the concert.

Taxi service to Eelswamp: we recommend Grabtaxi

Anupama at Indian by Nature

Monday 28th March

Anupama will play a program of light classics at a special dinner concert at Pattaya's finest Indian Restaurant

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Junghwa Lee plays Mozart, Debussy, Schumann and Chopin

Sunday, March 20th, 5pm

Gold Medal - Global Music Awards 2015

"...a pianist of acute intelligence, conviction… and passion." New York Concert Review

"Lee…delivered her highly demanding program with masterful artistic control, integrity, and refinement." Manhatten Mercury

Mozart: Rondo in D Major, K485 and Gigue in G Major, K574

Schumann: Kreisleriana Op.16

Debussy: Arabesque No. 1

Doo Young Sung: Gyeong for piano (1978)

Chopin: Nocturnes op. 48 no. 1 and op. 15 no. 2 and Scherzo no. 3, op. 39.

Junghwa Lee is a Korean pianist and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. Lee has performed in Korea, Holland, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, China, the United Kingdom and the United States, including appearances at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series at the Chicago Cultural Center and her New York debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a winner of Artists International’s Special Presentation Award. She is currently Associate Professor of Piano at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Reservations: 1,000 baht per person.

Email asiachart@hotmail.com for reservations. For more information call 038 069681 during office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: can be found at the bottom of this page: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html. If you haven't been to Eelswamp before I strongly urge you to find the venue before the day of the concert.

Taxi service to Eelswamp: we recommend Grabtaxi

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Bees plays Chopin and Beethoven

Julie Bees, piano

Sunday 6th March, 5pm

Beethoven: Waldstein Sonata (no. 21 in C major, op. 53)

Chopin: 24 Preludes op. 28

Celebrated pianist and pedagogue, Julie Bees, is Professor of Piano and Director of the Konrad Wolff-Ilse Bing Chamber Music Endowment Award at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.  She is also a founding member of The Orfeo Trio which has previously toured South-East Asia. She has also collaborated with the Vermeer Quartet and the St-Petersburg String Quartet, two of the finest string quartets in recent history.

She has performed around the world, including performances in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Vienna, Brussels, The Hague, Leipzig, Milan, Helsinki, Warsaw and St. Petersburg.  She has also performed and taught master classes in China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. Her pedagogic successes include a prize-winner at the Van Cliburn competition, one of the top four competitions in the world.

Reservations: 1,000 baht per person.

Email asiachart@hotmail.com for reservations. For more information call 038 069681 during office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: can be found at the bottom of this page:http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html. If you haven't been to Eelswamp before I strongly urge you to find the venue before the day of the concert.

Taxi service to Eelswamp: we recommend Grabtaxi

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Spanish Soprano Sings

Spanish Songs and Opera Arias

Monday, February 29th, 6pm

Laura Alonso Padin, Soprano

Best Artist Award, Aalto Theatre, Essen

Diapason d'Or award, Innsbruck Festival

First prize, Alfredo Kraus Competition 

First prize Franco Corelli Competition.

Monday, February 29th, 6pm

Opera arias by Mozart, Bellini, Puccini, 

Respighi and Andrew Lloyd-Weber

and

Spanish songs by Joaquin Rodrigo, Ernesto Halffter, Garcia Lorca and others

Laura Alonso Padin is a Spanish soprano from Galicia. She is famous as an opera singer and a singer of Catalan and Galician songs. In her twenty year professional opera career, she has sung leading soprano roles in major operas such as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Mimi in La Boheme (Pucinni), Pamina in Magic Flute, Susanna in Marriage of Figaro and Zdenka in Richard Strauss's Arabella. She has sung at opera theatres around the world, including appearances at the Konzerthaus and Staatsoper in Berlin, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Herodes Aticus in Athens, Palau de Valencia and Barcelona and in Mexico, Israel, the United States, Egypt, China to name a few. 

Laura has recorded seven CDs, including belcanto opera arias and Catalan and Galician songs.

Laura will sing seventeen songs for us, representing both the Spanish and opera aria repertoires.

Reservations: 1,000 baht per person.

Email asiachart@hotmail.com for reservations. For more information call 038 069681 during office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: can be found at the bottom of this page:http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html. If you haven't been to Eelswamp before I strongly urge you to find the venue before the day of the concert.

Taxi service to Eelswamp: we recommend Grabtaxi

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Gugnin's Third Orbit

Three programs: solo piano and chamber music

Friday 5th, 
Saturday 6th and 
Sunday 7th 
February, 2016

featuring prize-winning Russian pianist 

Andrey Gugnin

First Prize, International Piano Competition of Ferrol, Spain, 2015

First Prize, Gina Bachauer Piano Competition, USA, 2014

Second Prize, International Beethoven Competition, Vienna, 2013

harpist, Oksana Sidyagina (Mrs Gugnin)

First Prize, International Harp Competition of Italy, 2014

violinist, Tasana Nagavajara

and

flautist, Kazutaka Shimitzu

"one of the greatest and most influential flutists in Japan today" La Côte Flûte Festival

Three Programs on Consecutive Nights

1. Friday, February 5th, 6pm - a few places remaining

Gugnin Solo Piano Recital

Chopin 12 etudes op. 25
Sibelius: opus 85 no. 1, 3, 4; opus 75 no. 2, 4, 5; impromptu opus 5 no.5
Vsevolod Zaderatsky, Prelude and Fugue in D Major
Balakirev, Islamey
Medtner, Sonata Romantica, op.53 no. 1

2. Saturday, February 6th, 5pm

Gugnin-Tasana Violin Recital

Cesar Franck, Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano

Beethoven, Violin Sonata no. 9, op. 47, The Kreutzer

3. Sunday, February 7th, 5pm - waiting list only

Mrs Gugnin and the Japanese Flautist
...with Andrey accompanying in the first half.

Mozart, Concerto for Flute and Harp, K.299 in trio form

Second half will be flute and harp duet
Jean Cras Suite en duo for flute and harp
Jean-Michel Damase Sonata for harp and flute No.1

Andrey Gugnin is one of the finest pianists of his generation. He is a graduate of Moscow Conservatory. He won first prize in the 2014 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, one of the most prestigious competitions in the US. As part of his prize, he will perform at Carnegie Hall, in April, 2016. Andrey has performed at Eelswamp in 2014 and 2015. He is one of the most popular visitors and we look forward eagerly to his return.

Oksana Sidyagina  was born in Moscow in 1990. She is a post graduate student at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Oksana has received many prizes including, 1st prize in the Fourth International Vera Dulova Harp Competition, 2010, 1st prize, Harp in the Twenty First Century, Moscow 2014, and 1st prize and the Audience Prize at the First International Harp Competition of Italy, 2014. Andrey and Oksana were married in August 2015.

Kazutaka Shimitzu is associate professor at Tokyo Gakugei University. He studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève where he received the Première de Prix upon graduation. He won prizes at the Japan Woodwind Competition and several other competitions in Japan, France and Italy. After returning to Japan, he has frequently been invited to music festivals and institutions abroad, such as Aosta Conservatory(Italy), Alba Music Festival(Italy), International Music Festival Falaut (Italy) and the La Côte Flûte Festival, Switzerland.

Tasana Nagavajara was formerly concertmaster of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and is now Artistic Director of the Pro Musica Orchestra in Bangkok. 

He has performed frequently at Eelswamp, most recently with Dimitri Papadopoulos and Alexandre Vay, playing the Tchaikovsky and Dvorak F minor trios. 

Reservations: 1,200 baht for one concert. 2,000 baht for two, 3,000 baht for all three. Email asiachart@hotmail.com or call 038 069681 office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: search for 'Eelswamp' on google maps. Directions can be found at the bottom of this page: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html

Taxi service to Eelswamp: we recommend Grabtaxi

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And now for something completely different...

Piano and Violin Looping

Christopher Janwong McKiggan, piano

Robert Landes, violin

Sunday, 17th January, 5pm

“Masterful, highly contrasted and sharply characterized” Gramophone Magazine

"Best Instrumental" Utah Music Awards

Looping is the process of electronically superimposing tracks and fragments over live performance of contemporary and classical works. The program will comprise a selection of medleys and variations on classical, film and pop themes with violin looping and piano accompaniment. Both musicians are classically trained. Their program will include the following works:

James Bond Theme
Sarasate, Zigeunerweisen
Billie Jean/Thriller mashup
Liszt/Schumann, Widmung
Variations on Bach Partita in E major
Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah”
Image Dragons, RadioActive
Star Wars Medley
Danny Boy
The Fuguestones, a fugal interpretation of the Flintstones theme

... and moreRob Landes is an award-winning violinist who has performed in the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Carnegie Hall in New York. He has performed on the Disney Channel with the Disney Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra. He has soloed with the Utah Symphony. Rob was awarded full scholarships to attend Brigham Young University and Rice University

where he earned a Bachelor’s in Music and Master’s in Music, respectively. While studying at Rice, Rob began covering rock and pop music, and upon returning to Salt Lake City after graduation, began playing with a looper pedal which he uses to create intricate and stunning arrangements of today and yesterday’s most popular music. Rob recently won the award for "Best Instrumental" at the Utah Music Awards for his rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah” which has acquired millions of views on YouTube.



Christopher Janwong McKiggan's piano playing has been described by Gramaphone Magazine as “masterful, highly contrasted and sharply characterized”. He has been hailed by the Kansas City Star as a pianist "[with] astounding technique… startling poise and control". Christopher won the Gold medal in the Seattle International Piano Competition, second prize in the Isabel Scionti International Music Competition, first prize in the

Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition and awards in other national and international competitions around the world. He is also the recipient of the Presser Award for an upcoming international relations project titled "Resonance of Hope". He is currently a Doctoral of Musical Arts Candidate under Professor Jon Kimura Parker at Rice University in the US.

Reservations: 1,000 baht per person.

Email asiachart@hotmail.com for reservations. For more information call 038 069681 during office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Directions to Eelswamp: can be found at the bottom of this page:  http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html. If you haven't been to Eelswamp before I strongly urge you to find the venue before the day of the concert.

Taxi service to Eelswamp: we recommend Grabtaxi

 A member of 

Official media partner