Prach Boondiskulchok
Prach Boondiskulchok | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bangkok, Thailand |
| Occupation | Composer |
| Instrument | piano |
Prach Boondiskulchok (IPA in English: [prɐt͡ʃ] Thai: ปรัชญ์ บุญดีสกุลโชค) is a Thai-British composer and pianist based in Europe, and active in the United Kingdom (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Dance and Music, Royal College of Music), Germany (Linos Piano Trio and Festival), Netherlands and Belgium.
Education
[edit]Prach attended Satit Chula School in Bangkok. At the age of 14 he moved to the United Kingdom and studied piano and composition at the specialist music school, the Yehudi Menuhin School, and later completed his higher music education at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Royal Patronage of the Princess Galyani Vadhana and later at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. Between 2017-2021 he was a resident researcher at the Orpheus Instituut, Ghent.
Composer
[edit]His compositional language engages with diverse musical sources: Thai Piphat traditions, Buddhist sonic practices, Renaissance polyphony, and spectral attitudes towards sound colours. A central interest in his music is the negotiation and oscillation between harmonic functions and alternative modes of hearing. While often juxtaposing complex materials, his music aims for clarity and directness.
In 2019, Prach was commissioned a string quartet by the Endellion String Quartet for its 40th Anniversary alongside Sally Beamish, Jonathan Dove, and Giles Swayne.[1] The second section of the third movement of this work, Ritus: Four Portraits for String Quartet, is the first example of Prach's integration of Thai heptatonic tuning into a Western classical ensemble, using quarter-tone approximations divided between the players. Since then, elements of the heptatonic practice have been one of his principal topics of exploration.
In 2025, he was a resident composer with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble (Netherlands) as part of the GRASpunt programme, conducting researching and development of a new opera.
Pianist
[edit]Prach is active primarily as pianist of chamber music. He is a founding member of the Linos Piano Trio. The trio ensemble pioneered Accompanied Keyboard Sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, recording the first complete set of the thirteen works in the composer's centenary year in 2014. While the Linos Piano Trio performs both on modern and historical instruments, their choice of recording Bach on modern instruments was partly an attempt to integrate the repertoire into the mainstream. The ensemble's second album Stolen Music (2021), produced in partnership with Bayerischer Rundfunk and Deutsche Grammophon, received critical acclaim for its innovative transcriptions of Paul Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Maurice Ravel's La valse.[2]
In 2024-2026 the Linos Piano Trio is recording the complete Ludwig van Beethoven piano trios on three different historical pianos in collaboration with SWR.[3]
Prach has taught piano at the Yehudi Menuhin School (2010–2015) and was Visiting Professor at the Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music (Bangkok, 2014–2017). He currently teaches piano and chamber music at the Royal College of Music (London) and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Since 2017, he has served as Artist-in-Residence at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with the Linos Piano Trio and has been a jury member for several international competitions.[4]
Published works
[edit]| Name of work | Instrumentation | Year of composition |
|---|---|---|
| Piano Trio No. 1 "Night Suite" | Piano trio | 2014 |
| The Devil of Symmetry | Piano | 2017 |
| A Bao A Qu’s Stairs | Piano | 2018 |
| The Remora | Piano | 2018 |
| Ritus (Seasons) | String quartet | 2018 |
| Squonk Diptych | Portative organ | 2019 |
| Träumerei | Piano trio, clarinet | 2019 |
| Inventions | any keyboard instrument | 2020 |
| The Work | SATB choir | 2020 |
| Piano Quartet "Games" | violin, viola, cello and piano with toy instruments | 2021 |
| Ligatures | String trio | 2021 |
| Chopin Fantasy | Piano six hands | 2022 |
| Piano Trio No. 2 "Songs Without Words" | Piano trio | 2022 |
| Karmic Songs | voice, theremin, violin, viola, cello and piano | 2023 |
| Danse Macabre | Piano left-hand, clarinet and string trio | 2023 |
| Ciaccona and Other Debauched Dances | flute, clarinet, cello, guitar and accordion | 2024 |
References
[edit]- ^ Ashley, Tim (2019-05-30). "Endellion Quartet review – impeccable group celebrate 40 years with striking new music". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-05-26.
- ^ 2021-08-24T21:14:00+01:00. "Linos Piano Trio: Stolen Music". The Strad. Retrieved 2025-05-26.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Kultur, S. W. R. (2025-04-23). "Bruchsaler Schlosskonzert - „Beethovens Zeit: Broadwood-Flügel 1806" mit dem Linos Piano Trio". SWR Kultur (in German). Retrieved 2025-05-26.
- ^ "Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition returns". Birmingham City University. Retrieved 2025-05-26.
- ^ "Prach Boondiskulchok Music". Composers Edition. Retrieved 2020-07-13.