Overview
“Young and gifted, meet the rebel Thai composer taking music to unheard heights”
(Described by CNN News World Report, Karla Cripps)
Originally from Bangkok, Piyawat Louilarpprasert is a Thai composer/artist who interweaves composition, visual art and technology. Piyawat has been awarded several grants and composition prizes such as Project Prize: International Coproduction Fund (IKF) - Goethe-Institut, Donaueschingen Musiktage (Germany), Südwestrundfunk (SWR) Experimental Studio (Freiburg), MATA Festival (New York), Mizzou Composer Festival (Missouri), ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award 2018-20-21 (USA), Fritz Gerber Award, Lucerne Festival Commission 2021 (Switzerland), American Composer Orchestra-Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra, Earshot Reading 2019 (USA), British Council Grants 2021: Connections Through Culture (United Kingdom), The Matan Givol International Composers Competition Winning Prize 2019 (Israel), Call for Scores Winner Northwestern University Conference 2021 (Chicago), Call for Scores Winner the 40th Annual Bowling Green New Music Festival 2019 (Ohio), Pro Helvetia Swiss Art Council (Switzerland), Japan Foundation Director Grants (Japan), Creative Funds by Siam Cement Group Foundation, the Audrey Kahin Research Fellowship, CNN News World documentation: “Young and Gifted”, Sage Fellowship (Cornell University, NY), The Charles Stewart Richardson Scholar Award and Commissions (Royal College of Music, UK), Unheard-of//Ensemble Multimedia Prize 2019, Fund for Classical Promotion Under the Patronage HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana (TH), The Otto R. Stahl Memorial Award 2018 (USA), Sergei Slonimsky Composition Award 2018 (Russia), Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute 2019 (USA, runner-up), Lucerne Festival Academy Young Composer Seminar 2016 (Switzerland), Rapee Sagarik Award 2018 (TH), Royal concerto orchestral composition prize 2017 (UK), Gabriel Prokofiev Nonclassical Music Competition (UK), Winner of Léon Goossens Prize 2016 (UK), Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra Award 2015 (TH), Asia-Pacific Saxophone Composition Award 2015 (TH), SEADOM Composition Award 2015 (Philippines), Young Thai Artists Awards, Asian Composer League Electroacoustic music call for score 2014 (Japan) and Young Composers in Southeast Asia Competition 2013 (Germany). In 2017, he was a composer in residence at KulturKontakt 2017 (AIR), Vienna, offered by the Austrian Federal Chancellery Austria. In 2019, his Smelly Tubes was featured in CNN News World: “Young and Gifted”. His recent work, Ohm-Na-Mo was commissioned by Donaueschinger Musiktage for 100 years celebration in 2021.
Piyawat’s music explores possibilities of creating the amalgamation of sonic and visual arts, including integrating multimedia and music, deconstructing instruments’ mechanism and physicality with sound production method, and involving Thai traditional music elements in new compositions. Louilarpprasert’s compositions have been performed more than 20 countries in Asia, Europe and United States. His music has drawn attention in numerous music festivals such as Darmstadt New Music Festival (Germany), Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), MUSIIKIN AIKA – Time of Music (Finland), Out hear New Music Festival (Greece), European Creative Academy, International Composition Residency (France), Saint Petersburg New Music Festival (Russia), Kulturkontakt Residency (Vienna), Gaudeamus Musikweek (Netherlands), China – ASEAN Music Week (China), London National Portrait (UK), Mozart of Tomorrow (UK), Musica y Arte: Correspondencias Sonoras (Spain), Asian Composer League (Japan) and Dian Red Kechil Young Composers Residency (Singapore). He collaborated with several established ensembles and orchestras such as Tacet(i), Alarm Will Sound, Berlin Philharmonic Horn Section and Horn Pure, American Composer Orchestra, Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra, Arditti Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn Wire, Wet Ink, Lucerne Alumni Ensemble, Orkest Ereprijs, Oerknal!, Ensemble Platypus, Ensemble Reconsil, Quasars, Ensemble Surplus, Ensemble Mozaik, Switch Ensemble, ASEAN Contemporary Ensemble, Omnibus Ensemble, University Cincinnati Chamber Players, University of Austin Texas Chamber Ensemble, Mahidol University Orchestras, Vienna Improvisor Orchestra, University of Philippines Symphonic Band, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Stockport Youth Orchestra, RCM Philharmonic Orchestra, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. He also had studied with composers including Chaya Czernowin, Wolfgang Rihm, and Olga Neuwirth among others.
As an educator, he was awarded the Don Michael Randel Research Fellowship 2021-22 to conduct his new music course: P.I.Y. (Perform it Yourself) at Cornell University, Ithaca where he obtained his D.M.A. in music composition. He also holds an M.M. in composition at Royal College of Music, London, and a B.M. in composition and conducting at College of Music, Mahidol University. His major teachers are Valeriy Rizayev, Dai Fujikura, Kevin Ernste and Marianthi Papalexandri Alexandri.
Piyawat is recently appointed as a Visiting Lecturer at Cornell University (Fall 2022), and a lecturer in Music Theory, History and Composition at Ithaca College. In Thailand, he is serving as a chair and a program curator for Int-Act Festival (Thailand). More info: www.piyawatmusic.com