Creating classical music events for the past 20 years in Bangkok
The Ibycus Chamber Music Ensemble was founded by the husband and wife team of Pakdee and Sophie Tanapura who had just returned to Thailand in 1985. The founding group was made up of six musicians, namely with Ajarn Narong Manikhao of the Bangkok Metropolitan Music School . The ensemble later grew into a chamber orchestra of some 15 musicians and later became an orchestra of 40 musicians under the direction of Ajarn Choochart Pitaksakorn.
The name “Ibycus” is inspired by the German poet, Friedrich Schiller and his poem “The Cranes of Ibycus” in which beauty, virtue and justice prevail.
The very first concert organized by Ibycus in celebration of the 300 th Anniversary of Johann Sebastien Bach took place at the auditorium of the Alliance Francaise on Sathorn Road on December 1985. In the period of almost twenty years, Ibycus has come a long, long, way from being a home-grown chamber music group to becoming a chamber orchestra often featuring visiting foreign conductors such as Hans Guenter Mommer and Gerard Akoka as well as guest soloists such as British violinist Benedict Cruft, Austrian violinist Lukas David, French cellist Eliane Magnan and Japanese baritone Shin Yamanaka.
Today, Ibycus acts as an organizing agency for the Ibycus Concert Series (monthly) which features a wide variety of chamber music programs from song to piano quintets and string solisti. In addition, Ibycus manages an opera company together with orchestra comprising of a new generation of Thai singers and musicians.