Thai classical music education

I first encountered Thai classical music during my undergraduate studies. I am fortunate to be included into an educational lineage and am thus eligible to conduct research on the music. I, as a non-Thai, write about the traditions and practices of Thai classical music education in English. I hope to fill the gap in the subject in English academia. My work heavily relies on my fieldwork observations to understand Thai musicians' ideas and reveals their ordinary practices with new angles to the readers.

My research on Thai classical music education began with the music’s pedagogy and teacher-student relationships in universities in America and Thailand. Gradually, I extended my fieldwork to schools of all levels and in different regions of Thailand, and the connections between the music and Thai people. My major concern is promoting the continuity of Thai classical music, via education, rituals, and invented traditions and practices, in the modern world.

My research fieldwork in Thailand was supported by the Empowering Network for International Thai Studies Scholarship, the Institute of Thai Studies, at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. I have been a Research Fellow of the Center of Excellence for Thai Music and Culture, at Chulalongkorn University, since 2016.