Danish elephants celebrated with jazz concert

Rembrandt Hotel hosted on Tuesday March 26th 2013 a Jazz mini concert marking the 50 year anniversary of the two Thai elephants in Copenhagen Zoo. The two elephants were in 1962 presented by His Majesty King Bhumibol and Her Majesty Queen Sirikit as a gift to the Danish King Frederik and Queen Ingrid after their royal visit to Thailand.

Over the past 50 years, two royal elephants have bred about 11 elephants with the attentiveness of Copenhagen Zoo’s staff. In 2001, His Majesty King Bhumibol gave three more elephants to Danish monarchy to strengthen relationship between Thailand and Denmark.

The Jazz concert at Rembrandt Hotel on Tuesday evening also presented a music CD with jazz music composed especially to mark this anniversary by Dr. Pathorn Srikaranonda, the youngest member of His Majesty the King’s Au Saw Friday Band and also the house saxophonist of Rembrandt Hotel.

Rembrandt's-Quintet_web

Talking to ScandAsia, Dr. Pathorn Srikaranonda explained how this all came about.

“It all started two years ago when I was invited by the recently appointed Thai ambassador to Denmark, Piyawat Niyomrerks, to play in Copenhagen,” he explained.

“The Ambassador told me about the elephants in Copenhagen Zoo that were a Royal gift to Denmark 50 years ago and asked me if I had an idea how we could commemorate this anniversary.”

“Back in Thailand, I had an opportunity shortly after to meet with Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and mentioned the idea to compose a series of music on the elephant theme. Her Royal Highness supported this and said she had written several poems about elephants that I was free to find and use.”

“I then next asked the Royal Court in Denmark if they could join in on the project and His Royal Higness Prince Henrik, the Prince Consort graciously submitted a poem about the elephant order – the Order of the White Elephant.”

“Then I started composing the music and with the financial support from Rembrandt Hotel we have now been able to record this CD, that we are proud to present this evening.”

While the guests enjoyed Rembrandt Hotel’s drink and snack buffet Prof Pat’s Rembrandt Quintet then performed a few pieces of music from the CD – plus one definitely not on the CD, a special jazz version of the Thai National Anthem.

Danish-ambassador-and-wife-with-Eric-Hallin_web

Among the guests were the Danish ambassador to Thailand, His Excellency Mikael Hemniti Winther and wife Mrs. Ratanawadee Hemniti Winther, Mr. Niels Henrik Hansen, Director and General Manager Southeast Asia of SAS, Mr. Peter Romhild, President of Danish Thai Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Manrat Srikaranonda and family and jazz lovers.

An elephantine ballad CD is available at lobby bar for 480 THB per CD. For more information, please contact 02-261-7100 ext. 7500 or [email protected]

About Gregers Møller

Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

View all posts by Gregers Møller

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *