The Festival

An Annual Gathering of Music and Friends ~

The Joy of Live Musical Performance and Youth Oriented Musical Encounters for Our Community

February 18-21, 2011 the Chiang Mai Music Festival presents its Festival Week of teaching and performing classical music in Chiang Mai with its special emphasis on the art of classical piano music. Three friends from Japan, Korea, and the United States co-founded the Chiang Mai Music Festival in 2006. When Anne and Kazuyoshi Murase made a home in Chiang Mai and were visited by their acclaimed pianist friend, Tong-Il Han, a passion for music accompanied them and gave birth to this musical gift to the people of Chiang Mai. At the heart of the Festival is the conviction that "simply beautiful classical music" speaks to all, across the borders of time or nation. In keeping with this spirit is the Festival's mission to bring the finest and most inspiring music and artists free of charge to as many as possible. In addition to their public concerts the Festival artists also perform and teach in schools and youth facilities, both nurturing musical talent as well as simply reaching out to the energies and idealism of youth with what is the artists' best and most beautiful.

The Chiang Mai Music Festival first performed and taught in Chiang Mai in February 2006 with artists and teachers from various countries and has returned each February since 2006 (except in 2010). The purpose of the Chiang Mai Music Festival is to reaffirm the value of beauty and aspiration in the midst of the mass media culture, commercialism, and consumerism that now reache far corners of the world. The vibrancy and immediacy of live performance by artists who have mastered their art, dedicated a lifetime to his cultivation, and who take delight in sharing it hopefully will encourage youth and teachers to dream and strive, to pursue the path of their bliss and fulfillment and, in turn, to bring this fulfillment into the lives of those whom they encounter in family, work, and society.

Professor Tong-Il Han (a Korean-born American citizen who has now returned to his land of birth) devotes his main energies to teaching young pianists in Korea and also is Visiting Professor at Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima. Tong-Il Han is a long-time adjudicator at international piano competitions when not teaching or concertizing; since 2006 has extended his creativity to Thailand as Co-founder with Anne and Kazuyoshi Murase and as Artistic Director of the Chiang Mai Music Festival.

Every Festival Professor Han brings to Chiang Mai Young Pianists from Korean or Japan to perform in schools along with experienced performance and teaching colleagues. Together they offer free workshops and lessons for students and educators. This year in Chiang Mai there will be a piano workshop, a mini-concert for youth, and a full concert at the Chiang Mai Youth Protection and Observation Center where, to date, no such event ever has been offered. Rather than assuming that music communicates on the basis of knowledge, the Festival founders and artists believe that music is the language of the human heart. This music will reach the hearts of all and we hope that young people will value our simple but greatest gift - that of offering our best and most beautiful.

A core project of the Chiang Mai Music Festival, Youth Making Music for Youth, comes directly from Professor Han's own life experience. While Jacqueline Kennedy was First Lady of the United States, she instituted the famous White House Concerts at which Tong-Il Han played as a young man. One feature of these concerts was Youth Making Music for Youth - an inspired project as were the famous Young People's concerts started in New York by Leonard Bernstein. Professor Han also performed in these as a boy. Thus, the Chiang Mai Music Festival’s commitment to youth has its own special musical, historical and personal roots. Young pianists mentored by Tong-Il Han now enthrall Chiang Mai audiences and we hope that Chiang Mai will increasingly welcome the Festival as a regular feature of annual cultural events.

Professor Tong-Il Han -
Internationally acclaimed pianist, mentor, and adjudicator;
Co-founder and Artistic Director of the Chiang Mai Music Festival

Kazuyoshi and Anne Murase
Co-founders of Chiang Mai Music Festival

Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Center ~
Alive again with the sound of music!

Happy anticipation by audience members from many countries ~
Concert night, Chiang Mai Music Festival at City Arts & Cultural Center

Professor Tong-Il Han again will make our hearts sing
with the music he so loves to play