Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra Concert
October saw three of our trustees and our UK and Thai co-ordinators visit the Mae La camp to see how the trial lessons were progressing. We’re pleased to announce that the recent MAE Foundation project in Chiang Rai was a great success. If you weren’t in the know, we raised money to send conductor Bill Connor and Sixteen Wires String Quartet out to Thailand to work with the Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra. We managed to raise over £3000 by holding a concert in September at St James’s Church in Holland Park.
The Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra and its organisers are really remarkable. They put on several concerts every year, with huge amounts of enthusiasm and effort. But the instruments they use are very poor indeed and they cannot afford any specialist tuition to help with the concert preparation. So we sent Bill and Sixteen Wires out to Thailand to teach and play with these young musicians and to buy some new instruments for this wonderful, unlikely orchestra.
The workshops and master classes were very popular and the final concert was a huge success, with a review in the national paper. Many new friendships were made and we left with a promise to return and do more next year. You can see some videos from the concert online here.