Privy Councillor ML Usni Pramoj, presents The King’s Award to the first winner, Tapalin Charoensook (fifth from left), who won the Conrad Young Musician of Thailand Competition 2007.

Tapalin, a pre-college student at the College of Music, Mahidol University, played the second movement of Janis Ivanoff's Concerto in B Minor and David Popper's Hungarian Rhapsody - with full emotion.

Although she did not display technical brilliance, she possessed an all-around musicality and felt very at east with her captivating performance.

Tapalin won the King's Award, a cash prize and an opportunity to perform a concert in London and stay at the Conrad Hotel there for a week.

The runner-ups included 18-year-old Thapana Uparanukraw (trumpet), 16-year-old Thitapa Kimyingyot (piano), 16-year-old Channarong Jantarat (piano), 16-year-old Krit Niramittham (piano), 15-year-old Nonthaphat Wongwechwiwat (violin), and 13-year-old Panyaphat Wongvechwiwat (cello).

The competition, held on Saturday at the Conrad Hotel in Bangkok, was the first of its kind, bringing together international-renowned jurists and attracting almost 100 entries in piano/harp, woodwind and brass instruments, strings, and percussion.

The competition was organised jointly by the Conrad Hotel and the Royal Overseas League, and there are plans to make it an annual event to promote the talents of the young musicians.

ML Usni Pramoj was honorary advisor to the competition.

After the preliminary rounds, the jury picked only 20 contestants to perform in a closed-door audition - from which only seven contestants managed to make it to the final round on Saturday.

The jury included Chris Craker, general manager and senior vice president of Sony BMG Masterworks; Professor Michael Ma, head of Strings at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; Albert Tiu, assistant professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore, and Richard Harvey, composer, conductor and virtuoso performer.

 Thapana, now a scholar at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, came pretty close to winning the King's Award with his beautiful tone production on the trumpet. He played the Trumpet Concerto by J N Hummel, with a nice opening and a quicker tempo in the latter part.

 Thitapa's rendition of Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso: Adante -was equally captivating. Now a student at the St Joseph's Bang-Na School, Thitapa played like a virtuoso on this technically demanding piece, which is very lyrical and musical at the same time. She also displayed a lot of musical talent.

That summed up the competition of the first Conrad Young Musician of Thailand Competition Award.

Thanong Khanthong

The Nation