Statement of Purpose
The Chiang Mai Music Festival has been founded by local Thai as well as foreign residents and admirers of the Chiang Mai area under the artistic direction of the world renowned pianist and teacher, Tong-Il Han. We now are in our second year of musical and educational offerings to the Chiang Mai community as well as to visitors from near and far. Our inspiration is the universal language of music in an increasingly borderless world but a world in which beauty, compassion and solace are needed more than ever before.
Our purpose is to enrich musical education in Chiang Mai schools, to support local teachers in their efforts to provide musical opportunities in the lives of young people, and to inspire all who experience our project with concerts by both world class concert artists as well as young artists in the process of development into mature artists and humane persons. We wish music to be a gift shared genuinely and generously by all who gather.
The Chiang Mai Music Festival is rooted in Chiang Mai. At various times throughout the year the Chiang Mai Music Festival will present its associated teachers and performers in local and regional concerts and educational initiatives. In February of each year the Chiang Mai Music Festival will present a week of events - this year being the Young Pianists Program which is a concentrated educational initiative in Chiang Mai schools as well as several public concerts by pupils of Tong-Il Han, the Festival Artistic Director and the mentor of these young artists.
At the heart of Chiang Mai Music Festival 2007 is the Young Pianists Program and its companion initiative, the Young Musicians' Development Program. In Seoul, Korea Professor Tong-Il Han focuses his attention on mentoring a highly accomplished group of young pianists, ranging in age from middle school grades through university. These emerging artists and teachers constitute the members of the Young Pianists Program and some also will teach local Chiang Mai students as part of the ongoing Young Musicians' Development Program. The goal of the latter is to give support to local efforts, to engage in mutual exchange concerning musical education as well as education for youth that contributes to goal-setting, striving, aspiring, excellence, and realizing one's legitimate dreams.
The Young Pianists Program under Professor Han will engage in several educational "musical conversations and recitals" in numerous Chiang Mai schools from February 20-22. Two concerts on February 23 and 24 will be open and free of charge to the public. These will feature evenings of solo piano performances (February 23 at the Mae-Jo University, Chiang Mai venue) as well as solo works and piano concerti with Young Pianists as soloists and Professor Han providing orchestra accompaniment on the piano (February 24 at the Ban Wangtan Restaurant, Handong venue).
The Chiang Mai Music Festival owes a great debt of gratitude to those who helped so abundantly to make Chiang Mai Music Festival 2006 such a success. New supporters joining us enable the Chiang Mai Music Festival to develop its Young Pianists Program and Young Musicians' Development Program, thus building further and intensifying educational and youth focused efforts. In February 2007 a total of five concerts in schools and in public venues will be offered to the Chiang Mai community. Yamaha / Siam Music in Bangkok is sending free of charge a Yamaha grand piano and providing transportation for the piano's move to each school and performance venue. Khun Chavalit Sirinirund and Khun Petchsri Sirinirund are hosting as their guests all our Young Pianists and are offering performance facilities at Ban Wangtan Restaurant for the Gala Concert on February 24. To all who have helped, especially to these enabling sponsors such as Yamaha and Ban Wangtan both last year and this, and to the abundant logistics support of Tour2ChiangMai, we wish to express our special thanks.
In all communities it is youth well mentored by the adult generation that contributes to a high quality of life and that promises a better future. The Chiang Mai Music Festival and its dedicated programs hope to enhance community resources by its active presence. Much economic growth now is underway in Chiang Mai. The Chiang Mai Music Festival hopes that this beautiful area of Thailand and significant sub-Mekong economic hub will grow not only materially but also as an environment where all can experience a life made more abundant by what music offers - beauty and humane sensibilities.
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