Soul Music

Tim had to go to India for a week, so I'd been looking for activities to keep myself (and our driver) busy while he's gone.  I feel a bit responsible for making sure our driver gets his hours in while the Big Boss is away - he doesn't get paid if he doesn't drive.  At the same time, many of the "events" happening in Pattaya are not exactly my idea of fun.  So, imagine my delight when I came upon a news article detailing the upcoming visit of the ZHdK Strings Orchestra on Monday night in Pattaya!  "The ZHdK Strings are a string orchestra consisting of young and highly motivated fulltime students from the concert and soloist course of the Zurich University of Arts."  I'm way in!  (This was my consolation prize for having to give up my Andrea Bocelli ticket, whose concert was the night before at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit).

Well, I didn't realize that Tim was not leaving until Monday night, so we had to play a game of "Musical Car" - he went to work for half-a-day (anyone who has lived with this man knows what a "half-day" really means), walking in the door after four thirty.  Mick then drove me down to a hotel in south Pattaya where the concert was to take place.  This put me there a little more than an hour early.  Then Mick zipped back up to our condo, grabbed the "Big Boss," and shot out to the airport, which is more than an hour away.  He then hurried back to south Pattaya to pick me up, arriving just as the concert finished.  The poor guy was driving for about seven hours straight!

Anyway, when we arrived at the Siam Bayshore Hotel, we discovered what a huge complex it is.  We came to one entrance, but saw another sign indicating the lobby in another direction.  So I asked Mick to drive me around to the other side - quite a majestic entrance.   Once inside, I had to keep asking for directions to the "music," some employees helpfully pointing me around the next corner, some employees smiling but not comprehending.  Well, I wove my way through hall after hall, at one point walking along a boardwalk that went through lush vegetation and over smelly waterways, finally arriving at a table where two women were seated with a money box in front of them - eureka!  This table was right inside the first entrance we came to when we first arrived - natch.  I purchased my ticket, then went to look for some dinner.  I wound up having to go all the way back to where I started, where I found the "Sunrise Sunset" cafe, and had a delicious curried chicken salad, served in a hollowed-out pineapple, with big banana leaves for decoration.  I was undaunted by the earwig that appeared from the leaves of the pineapple, and enjoyed my tasty dinner.

Back again I went, over "hill and dale," to the site of the impending concert.  (If you ever need to find your way through the Siam Bayshore, I'm your girl).   It was general seating, so I found myself the perfect seat in the second row.

This concert was another great example of the international nature of this city - many expats in attendance.  As this was a Swiss group, there were many Swiss in the audience, but I also heard German, Dutch, British, Japanese and Thai conversations.  The orchestra itself was very international - sixteen students from sixteen different countries, led by one Rudolf Koelman, a Dutch violinist who was born in Amsterdam, studied with Jascha Heifetz, and was concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.  He founded the string orchestra in Zurich in 2005.

The program was lovely - Mozart, Vivaldi, Bartholdy, Elgar and Grieg.  And the students were immensely talented musicians from 16 different countries: Holland, Germany, South Korea, Sweden, Latvia, Japan, Switzerland, Iceland, USA, Poland, Romania, Thailand, Israel, Greece, Slovakia, and a double-bass player from Monaco!  So many cultures coming together to create some magic.  I was in heaven.

It was a sublime, soul-feeding pleasure.