Royal Concert

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary celebration of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s accession to the throne, the CCP and the Royal Thai Embassy are presenting “A Concert of Royal Compositions,” a performance by the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra.

The concert will be held at 8 p.m. on Oct. 11 at the CCP’s Main Theater. It will feature 16 compositions by the Thai king, a renowned musician, composer, arranger and performer. His songs range from classical to jazz and contemporary.

This was the advertisement I found on-line with great excitement! It turns out that this was the first time ever that the Bangkok symphony orchestra came to the Philippines. We got searched thoroughly and weren't allowed a camera (thus no pictures).

As the 8:00 mark came we were sitting in the balcony surrounded by an entire section of empty chairs. I was thinking "I know this is the Philippines, but where I come from you can't come in even one minute past an 8:00 performance!" I was really wondering about the customs.

Then after a while an MC came on stage and announced the President of the Philippines. We didn't know she would be there. Then we heard clapping and realized that everyone else had seats below us and we were stuck on the balcony, probably since we bought our tickets just one hour before the show (we were off the streets, so they put us up there).

It was fun to hear the ambassador of the King of Thailand speak. I loved the music too! It was a smaller sized orchestra with mostly strings, but it was nice to hear them playing together and in tune! I just loved sitting and listening to the music. All the pieces were the King's original compositions. Can you imagine having the same king for 60 years? AND he is a musician! That's pretty cool.

So after the show we were told we were not allowed to go down the grand staircase. I didn't know why until I looked over the balcony and saw the whole orchestra and the conductor standing at the foot of the staircase waiting for the President to appear. We would get to see the president of our country live! Wow, that was a fun surprise.

I know there were pictures taken, but I can't seem to find any online. It was so exciting to see her walk down the stairs escorted by the ambassador to the King of Thailand and a few others. She gave the conductor a very long handshake for show and smiled a lot. Nate decided he was going to run down the escalator to try to meet her in person and get a handshake. By the time we got there she was out the door and in her darkened-windowed car being escorted off by many police cars.

The good news is that I turned around and saw the ambassador of the King of Thailand standing right there with no one to talk to! I greeted her by bowing and smiling. She asked me, "How did you like the music?" I, of course, gave her great reports. What a fun evening and a great gift from our great God!