Muhamad Yusri

This year, the WYCW included an international guest conducting tutor. COL Prateep Suphanrojn is no stranger to Bangkok’s military music and orchestra scene. He is currently the Conductor of the Royal Thai Army Orchestra and the Resident Conductor of the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. Graduated from the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall in London, he continued his music education at the College of Music, Mahidol University. He is completing his Doctor of Music (D.M.) in Composition soon.

Repertoire for this year featured Thai pieces arranged by COL Prateep, standard band works and also works by local composers. The hope was that the participants had a variety of pieces that they could work on. I was happy to note that there was at least one participant on all the pieces. This meant that they band would not be playing just a few of the pieces which were prepared.

There was one activity that stood out for me. This was a usual practice when COL Prateep and I were at Kneller Hall but I never thought of doing it for the workshop until this year – a video review. On Day 2, participants reported in the afternoon for a review of their conducting from Day 1.  We spent a good 15 to 20 minutes on each participant’s video. COL Prateep and myself provided feedback and the other participants also took notes and shared their thoughts. It is the little things we see on the video that we were not aware of before that will make us improve. I strongly recommend the use of video recordings to document the rehearsals and concerts so that we see what we are doing on the podium and find ways of harnessing the strengths and improving the weaknesses. The improvement COL Prateep and I noticed in all the participants, during the conducting session on Day 2 after the video review was shocking. Practically everyone showed marked improvements in their conducting techniques and the sounds from the band was testament of their success in grasping the intended effects of the afternoon’s lesson.

Riding on the success from the previous day, COL Prateep and I decided to throw a twist into proceedings on Day 3. We decided to give the participants sections of a piece they have not studied before to conduct and to rehearse. COL Prateep believes strongly that a Conductor needs to have strong rehearsal techniques. This will ensure that time is not wasted and desired outcomes are achieved in the quickest most economical way. Each participant had to work with a section of the West Side Story. There was a clear distinction between participants who have worked with bands and participants who do not. The conductors with band conducting experience showed more confidence and knew how to get what they wanted. COL Prateep provided more insights on how to achieve even more. For participants without band conducting experience, COL Prateep gave guidance on how to achieve the result in the quickest possible time. All participants were provided with video recordings from all their sessions so that they could review and learn from their time at the workshop. The workshop closed with a presentation of certificates to all participants.

I would like to thank all participants for contributing and joining us this year. I would also like to thank the RPWS for being such a wonderful ensemble to work with. They were responsive and attentive throughout the 3 days and although they were really tired from the other camp activities, they gave their best for the WYCW. Thank you RPWS, you guys are amazing!

For information and interest registration for WYCW 2018, please email Yusri at mbmayusri@hotmail.com