How Virtuosi Thailand is Reintroducing Classical Music to the Youth
For the musically inclined, studying the art is both a dream and a life goal. But for Toto Jirajet Jesadachet, the founder and leader of Virtuosi Thailand, it became a reality. His hard-earned degrees from Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and London’s Royal Academy of Music have brought new meaning to his passion for the genre. Today, he takes his love for music a step further by imparting its beauty to a broader Thai audience.
A classically trained violinist, Toto has entered a world that is often misunderstood. “I used to have friends in my childhood who would have [negative] reactions to classical music. But the truth is they’d never actually heard proper classical music. They’d only heard of the stereotypes: that classical music is for rich people, that you need to dress up just to go to the concert, that people will look down on you if you clap at the wrong time,” he noted.
For the musician, enjoying classical music is a mindful practice. It involves a level of concentration in order for the listener to enjoy the nuances and shifting of sound. “I think people get scared of listening to classical music because they worry too much about trying to understand the meaning of the music or [other minutiae like that],” Toto said. In reality, enjoying classical music should come naturally, as a way to get in touch with one’s emotions.
“Allow the music to bring back or stir up their own memories of situations or moods. This way, you’ll be able to connect to the music in a more comfortable and sincere way,” he added.
This is because, as Toto noted, classical music is more complex than most. “Great composers were never strict on themselves to only portray the happy, the sad, the lovely, or the heartbroken,” he shared. “There is so much more that humans can feel and relate to, those complicated ‘in-between’ feelings that only classical music can portray. The more you listen, the more you will hear the details, the differences, and the surprises in the harmony.”
Of course, not everyone is designed to enjoy classical music. Toto admits that preference plays an important role in determining whether one enjoys it or not. But for the violinist at least, it’s good music; this he defines as “any kind of music that sounds pleasing to the ears, pleasing to the soul.”
“Good music could take you somewhere in your imagination: past, present, future, fantasy, wherever,” Toto added.
After finishing his studies abroad, Toto returned to Thailand where he slowly built the foundations for Virtuosi. “I decided to gather a group of friends to plan a performance together a few months after I graduated,” he reminisced. Their first performance as a group had been in August 2019, debuting with Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No.2 in A minor and String Octet in E Flat Major. “It was a very successful event,” he noted. “We made over THB1.4 million, all of which were donated to Hat Yai Hospital in the south of Thailand in order to purchase dialysis machines.”
Since then, Virtuosi has performed on numerous occasions, bringing classical masterpieces to life. “We have done string quartet, string octet, piano trio, clarinet quintet, and even the sextet of violin,” he recalled.
Among Virtuosi's artists are other internationally educated musicians such as Teesin Puriwatthanapong (who studied in Switzerland and majored in the viola), Chawin Karnjanaphan (currently in Salzburg), and Arlene Karnjanaphan (who had trained in Austria).
Musicians in Virtuosi’s latest concert – which featured a string septet – included Winry Wishwin and Pukao Kunut, Part Patis (a student at Zurich University of the Arts), Namfon Varisara (a graduate of Tennessee State University), and Jay Nattawut (a royal scholarship recipient who had studied in Vienna).
It might surprise audiences to know just how dynamic classical music is, particularly when playing as a group or as an orchestra. “It’s incredibly difficult to get the unity of sound [as a group],” Toto noted. “Simply playing the notes in the music score is no longer enough, it is the music that the audience comes for. This includes intonation, the articulation of each stroke, and the characters of the sound. It requires a lot of discussion and experimentation to get to the most ideal result.”
Of course, not everyone is expected to take classical music as seriously as those in Virtuosi; but it’s obvious that adding a few performances to your playlist does no harm. “Similar to eating, you cannot eat the same thing, every meal, every day. Alternating is the best way to enjoy all kinds of things,” Toto said. “Enjoy Friday night at a bar with EDM. On another day, you might crave some jazz music. Then, once in a while, you might find yourself enjoying an evening of classical to help you reflect on yourself, reorganize your mind, or simply get ready for a big day ahead."
Ultimately, Toto is building a community that aims to be both passionate and long-lasting. “The goal is to provide performance opportunities to younger generations of musicians who want to present their musical craftsmanship to the society,” the violinist shared. “We want to reach out to new audiences and provide a heartwarming experience in order to continuously build upon the classical music community in Thailand.”
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