Notes from the Old and new

Two young musicians are offering city audiences a unique musical experience. On Saturday, July 5, modern and classical works will be presented in a concert by pianist Cholapat "Nick" Chongstitwattana and saxophonist Yang Tong.

This concert is not a repeat of the concert they performed last year. "For this programme, we've chosen old and new pieces," Nick says. The "old" works are really not that old - two nocturnes and a scherzo by Frederic Chopin (1810 to 1849), which Nick will perform as solos, and a Sonata for Oboe and Piano by Camille Saint-Saens (1835 to 1921), which Yang will perform on a soprano saxophone along with Nick on the piano.

"We've chosen these to 'whet' the audience's appetite for the newer works," Nick says. Some modern pieces, such as "Episode Quatrieme" by French composer Betsy Jolas, have never been performed in Bangkok.

At 26, Nick already has three major awards under his belt - a Gold Medal from the third Youth Music Competition of Thailand, 1999; third prize from the sixth Bangkok Chopin Piano Competition, 2002; and third prize from the first National Piano Concerto Competition, 2004.

Ask him when he began playing the piano, and he says, "When I was three," without hesitation. Ask him why, and he hesitates. "I really don't know," he says.

His parents do not play any instrument, but one day, his mother bought a small piano and placed it outside her three-year-old's bedroom. She never said anything, but every morning, she would open the keyboard.

One morning, Nick woke up and, for some reason, touched the black and white keys. He was hooked. Suddenly, he was playing all day - childish tunes. "I couldn't stop," he says.

Within the year, a piano teacher was coming to his house to teach him the basics. The little boy learnt how to read music at the same time that he was learning the alphabet in school.

Well-known professors Rosrin Tantikarn and Nalin Komentrakarn were his teachers. In 2000, he became an advanced student of Thailand's foremost pianist and composer Doctor Nat Yontararak.

At Chulalongkorn University, he studied under Suwana Wangsophon. From 2005 to last year, he studied in Switzerland, at the Conservatoire de Lausanne Haute Ecole de Musique. It was at Lausanne that he met Yang, who was studying the saxophone and chamber music.

Born in Beijing, Yang, 25, began his studies when he was four, when he took up violin. By the time he was 13, though, the saxophone had won his heart, and he entered the China Central Conservatory where he studied the clarinet too.

A few years later, he headed to Moscow, where he studied at the Russian Academy of Music and from 2003, in European schools.

Recently, he has been travelling around Europe to participate in master's classes, workshops and music conferences.

American-French composer Etienne Rolin has written two compositions for him, and French composer Francois Rosse has dedicated a solo piece for the soprano saxophone to him.

Now, the two young musicians have chosen a difficult task, to bring new approaches to Bangkok audiences. "Most people here know the saxophone in popular music, such as jazz and blues," Nick says, "but, it has long been an important part of concert music too." Some of the modern music is especially exciting, he says.

As for his instrument, he says, "A lot of people are surprised when I remind them that the piano is a percussion instrument." Inside the piano, hammers hit strings. It's not like a violin, he says.

"For me, its basic sounds are black and white, not coloured. It's up to the pianist to add the colour, the emotion, through such factors as technique, tempo and intensity," he says.

Nick and Yang have another reason for this one-time concert. "[Professor] Nat once told me it's not good enough if you're only talented," he says. "You also have to be a good guy."

All proceeds from the concert will be donated to Baan Imm Jai, a home for orphans of HIV patients  in Chiang Mai.

'Yang Tong and Cholapat in Concert' is scheduled for this Saturday, 8pm, at the Church of Christ in Thailand (next to Asia Hotel, near BTS Ratchatewi Station. Tickets are Bt600, and Bt200 for students.) For reservations, call (081) 816 9467.