The Department of Music arranged two master classes in May – one of them by Thai ranad musician, Mr. Khun-In Narongtosa-nga, and the other by Russian pianist, Prof. Lilya Zilberstein.

Khun-In, who played a role in the awards-winning film, “The Overture,” about a Thai palace musician, showed clips from the film to introduce the Thai traditional percussion instrument, ranad.

He explained and demonstrated the purposes of different mallets: soft mallets create mellow tones, while hard ones make sharp and bright sounds usually for fast-tempo music.

Khun-In also showed the proper way to hold the mallets and played two pieces of music with the ranad.

The ranad artist is endearedly known by his fans as Khun-In – the name of the character he portrayed in “The Overture.” While the film catapulted him to national fame, he had already showed his musical talent at the age of five when he played the gamelan in a TV program.

Prof. Zilberstein was making her fourth visit to TNUA when she delivered her lecture in May, during which she gave one-on-one instructions to three piano students:   

For the teaching purposes, Prof. Zilberstein had the students respectively play Bach-Busoni’s “Chaconne BWV 1004,” Brahms’ “Ballade Op.10,” and Stravinsky’s “Petrushka Three Movements For Piano Solo.”

The pianist, who is professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, is well known for her rendition of Listz, Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky. She is considered the most trusted duet partner of Argentine virtuoso pianist Martha Argerich.