Narong Prangcharoen

The music of Thai composer Narong Prangcharoen has been called “absolutely captivating” (Chicago Sun Times). Prangcharoen has established an international reputation and is recognized as one of Asia’s leading composers. He has received many international prizes, including the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award, the Alexander Zemlinsky International Composition Competition Prize, the 18th ACL Yoshiro IRINO Memorial Composition Award, the Pacific Symphony’s American Composers Competition Prize, and the Annapolis Charter 300 International Composers Competition Prize. In 2007, the Thai government named Prangcharoen a Contemporary National Artist and awarded him the Silapathorn Award. Recently, he has won the 20th Annual American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Commission and the Audience Choice Award.

Prangcharoen’s music has been performed in Asia, America, Australia, and Europe by many renowned ensembles such as the American Composers Orchestra, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the China NCPA Orchestra, the German National Theater Orchestra, the Grant Park Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, under many well-known conductors, such Carl St. Clair, Steven D. Davis, Carlos Kalmer, Jose-Luis Novo, Mikhail Pletnev, and Osmo Vänskä. His music has also been presented by, among others, The New York New Music Ensemble, the Imani Winds, saxophonist John Sampen, and pianist Bennett Lerner at many important music festivals and venues, such as the Grant Park Music Festival, the Asia: the 21st Century Orchestra Project, the MoMA Music Festival, the Maverick Concerts: “Music in the Wood,” the Beijing Modern Music Festival, the Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, the Le Poisson Rouge, and Carnegie Hall.

Prangcharoen received his D.M.A. from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, where he studied with his primary teacher Chen Yi. In addition to working as a freelance composer, he is currently teaching at the Community Music and Dance Academy of the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri, Kansas City. Prangcharoen is the founder of the Thailand International Composition Festival in Thailand.

Follow the links below to listen to examples of Narong’s work:

Illuminations for Orchestra

The Dawn of Darkness for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra

Profile photograph by Sakchai Guy