Dear Khun Saran Suebsantiwongse,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are gathered tonight to pay homage to Saran Suebsantiwongse for his outstanding contribution to art and culture for which the French government has decided to make you a “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres”.
This Order takes its origin in the ancient Order of Saint Michel created in 1469 and took its current form in 1957. André Malraux, the first ever French Minister of Culture, described the Order as the “most respected and sought after by artists and creators”. Internationally recognized, it is designed for men and women who make significant contributions to the arts and literature.
Khun Saran, you are obviously one of them. Let me, as customary in this kind of ceremony, summarize the main stages of your distinguished career and your merits.
Let me start with your impressive academic background. After graduating from high school in Bangkok with an International Baccalaureate Bilingual Diploma in 1998, you studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York where you were awarded a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance in 2001.
In 2004, you were a Chevening Scholar in the Graduate and Postgraduate Courses, under the tutelage of Russell Smythe, at the Royal College of Music, in London. You were a recipient of the “Young Thai Musician Fund” awarded by HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana. In 2005, you graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Opera at the Royal College of Music.
But if I may say so, you have more than one string to your bow. Indeed, you also have an interest in Sanskrit, Indology and Asian Art History. In fact, you don’t have only an interest, but you are an expert in these fields since you were awarded a MA in Sanskrit Studies at Silpakorn University in 2016.
Part of your academic curriculum has a link with France since you speak French as well as several others languages. In 2017, you were the recipient of a research grant at the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in Pondicherry, India.
Your academic training culminated with a doctoral degree: you have been awarded a PhD in Asian & Middle Eastern Studies in Sanskrit from Cambridge University, where you have been doing your research from 2016 to 2021. You have graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art (Indian, Chinese and Buddhist Art) at SOAS University, The School of Oriental and African Studies in London, in 2021.
You have published many articles, several Book chapters, and you have been teaching Vocal Performance, Ethnomusicology, and also Indian and Southeast Asian Civilizations at Silpakorn University.
Dear Khun Saran,
Although the decree appointing you a s a Chevlier des Arts et des Lettres states that you are quote “a singer, anthropologist and music programmer”, unquote, music is where your contribution has been mostly noted by the French authorities.
As a musician, you have been singing with the Bangkok Opera, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra and the Singapore Lyric Opera. Concerning the French repertoire, let quote the Te Deum by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Samson de Rameau. After graduating from the Royal College of Music, you founded an Opera / Performing arts company, NUNi Productions, in collaboration with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. You have produced “Les Mamelles de Tirésias”, by Francis Poulenc, adapted from Guillaume Apollinaire.
From 2020 to 2023, you were Director of Marketing & Communications at the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. You worked closely with our Embassy to invite the famous cellist Gautier Capuçon to play with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of HRH princess Sirivannavari’s Birthday on January 2023. You also invited the flute player Julien Beaudiment in February the same year. In March this year, we had the pleasure to welcome the young French female conductor Chloé Dufresne in this Residence before her concert with the Royal Symphony Orchestra at the Thailand Cultural Center for the celebration of the International Women’s Day in a program including Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel.
Dear Khun Saran, it is in recognition of your contribution to the cultural links that you helped promote between France and Thailand that the French government has decided, following the embassy’s recommendation, to bestow you with the medal of Chevalier (Knight) des Arts et des Lettres.
Saran Suebsantiwongse, au nom de la Ministre de la Culture de la République française, je vous fais Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
