Myanmar National Symphony Orchestra

The National Orchestra of Myanmar (English Myanmar National Symphony Orchestra ) was founded in 2001, but was allowed to enter in the first twelve years of its existence, only three public concerts.

History

Plans to establish a symphony orchestra in Myanmar, have there been since the early 1960s, when a group of musicians was sent to the USSR to study classical music there. The plans were more than four decades not realized until was founded in September 2001 with the support of General Khin Nyunt, a high-ranking member of the then-ruling military junta, SPDC, the first symphony orchestra in the country. His musicians were from the chapel of the State Radio and Television Corporation of Myanmar ( MRTV ), recruited students from the National University of Art and Culture, officers of the police band and some foreigners.

In the early years, the orchestra had difficulty gaining a foothold, and exerted only temporarily under the leadership of an American musician. Only in 2004 the orchestra gave its first concert in front of exclusively invited guests at MRTV - Studio A in Yangon. The first success was short-lived. In October 2004, his patron Khin Nyunt was deposed and put under house arrest. Because the orchestra was considered Khin Nyunt hobby horse, it became taboo and was not allowed to appear in public. Government officials even went so far as to deny the existence of a national orchestra. The American concertmaster left it shortly thereafter. In the following years it was only used for recordings of pop and folk music for national television.

2007, there was a new opportunity, as the Symphony Orchestra after a successful appeal to the government was allowed to give his first public concert in front of a group of musicians from Europe. After intense training, the orchestra finally gave his first public concert at the National Theatre in Yangon. First, it was in this an appearance that situation then deteriorated again.

To a relaxation occurred in January 2012, Khin Nyunt as was freed from house arrest. The government allowed the resumption of the public activities of the orchestra. In July 2012, the orchestra was under the direction of Yoshikazu Fukumura, the former director of the Symphony Orchestra of Kyoto, two public concerts in Yangon with a standard repertoire of Mozart and Beethoven. To fill gaps in their own occupation, the orchestra for the two performances could win some foreign violinist and oboist.

Recent Activity

The current band consists of about 60 musicians, most of which are graduates of the National University of Art and Culture. It is headed by the French composer Odile Perceau.

On 5 and 6 December 2013, the orchestra had its international debut at the Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat. The string musicians of the orchestra were there on together with the French string quartet Quatuor Le Des Equilibres, playing contemporary and classical music at a performance of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia.