Kevin Charoensri (b. 2003)
Kevin Charoensri is a Thai-American San Diego native who now resides in Austin, studying music composition (BM) at the University of Texas at Austin. Charoensri began writing music at age 12, and he has written works for band, orchestra, choir, chamber music, EDM, big band, jazz combo, and film scores.

Charoensri currently studies with Omar Thomas at UT Austin, and has studied with Donald Grantham, along with being heavily involved with other faculty on staff, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Russel Podgorsek, and Januibe Tejera. He is currently a BM Composition major, as well as a piano principal, taking lessons in both classical and jazz styles, studying with piano professors Gregory Allen, Patti Wolf, and Sean Giddings. He is also the pianist for the University of Texas’s Jazz Ensemble.

In June 2018, Charoensri conducted a performance of his Return for Band with 80 musicians at the Sydney Opera House in front of an audience of 2500. The performance received recognition from the San Diego Union Tribune.

In Summer 2019, Charoensri attended the Young Composer Program at Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Dr. Keith Fitch. He was also one of seven composers selected to attend the four-week Summer 2019 workshop at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under Mr. Daniel Wood. In addition to guidance by high school band director David Hall, Charoensri has studied composition privately with Dr. Daniel Temkin and Dr. Jules Pegram.

In September of 2022, Charoensri’s work “Rising Light” was premiered by the University of Texas Wind Symphony under Dr. Ryan Kelly. The piece was well-received and Charoensri’s work has had several performances at major universities. He has also been on several guest composer visits/residencies at schools such as the University of Delaware (CBDNA performance at Cornell University), Texas Tech University, Texas A&M Commerce, Orange County School of The Arts, UCLA, Texas A&M Tarleton, Cal State Fullerton, and the Pacific Youth Wind Ensemble.

RISING LIGHT (2022)
A few months ago, my mother asked me to walk with her to get groceries because she felt fearful of the violent, racist attacks on Asian American women across the country, such as the seven attacks on innocent Asian women in New York. From this, Rising Light, was born. I knew I had to say something with my voice I had been given, which was in music.

Asian Americans are raised to stay quiet and be non-confrontational about issues, and I found it hard to break my shell in writing. I was scared to write moments too big, and often thought about scrapping the piece. I, along with other Asian Americans, including my parents, had a fear of speaking up, which plagued me much of my life composing. Comments such as calling my music “too Asian” always got to my head, and I made sure I never used common Asian musical language or instruments in my music, such as a pentatonic scale or a gong in my pieces.

The name, Rising Light, is inspired by the floating Lantern Festival in Thailand, where I was raised, where people write their fears, worries, and thoughts on their mind and send it off on a lantern. For me, writing this piece has felt much like that, being a place for me to vent and express all my emotions regarding this issue.

Despite being disgusted and saddened by the surge of Asian hate, I wanted this piece to non-apologetically celebrate both the beautiful cultures I grew up in. While there are dark moments in this piece, I wanted this piece to celebrate the beautiful bi-cultural identity of Asian Americans.

-program note by composer

Instrumentation
For Wind Ensemble

Performer
University of California - Los Angeles Wind Ensemble
Conducted by Travis Cross

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