Bio – Piyawat Louilarpprasert

Piyawat Louilarpprasert
(EN/ TH)

“His Compositions suggest a post humanist approach to sound production, where performer, instrument and objects become new agents”
(Described by The Otto R. Stahl Memorial Award, Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri)

“Young and Gifted, Meet the rebel Thai composer taking music to unheard heights”
(Described by CNN News Worlds Report, Karla Cripps)

Originally from Bangkok, Piyawat Louilarpprasert is a Thai composer/artist who works interweave of composition, visual art and technology. Piyawat has been awarded commissions and prizes including Fromm Foundation Commission, Harvard University (USA), Hellerau Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Commission (Germany), Impuls Composer Commission 2025 (Graz), International Coproduction Fund (IKF)—Goethe Institut, Donaueschingen Musiktage (Germany), ISCM/Asian Composer League Prize 2022 (New Zealand), Südwestrundfunk (SWR) Experimental Studio (Freiburg), MATA Festival (New York), Mizzou Composer Festival (Missouri), ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award 2018, -20 and -21 (USA), Fritz Gerber Award, Lucerne Festival Commission 2021 (Switzerland), American Composer Orchestra-Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra, Earshot Reading 2019 (USA), British Council Grants 2021: Connections Through Culture (United Kingdom), The Matan Givol International Composers Competition Winning Prize 2019 (Israel), Call for Scores Northwestern University Conference 2021 (Chicago), Call for Scores the 40th Annual Bowling Green New Music Festival 2019 (Ohio), Pro Helvetia Swiss Art Council (Switzerland), Japan Foundation Director Grants (Japan), Creative Funds by Siam Cement Group Foundation (SCG), the Audrey Kahin Research Fellowship (Mario Einaudi Center), The Charles Stewart Richardson Scholar Award and Commissions (Royal College of Music, UK), Unheard-of//Ensemble Multimedia Prize 2019, The Otto R. Stahl Memorial Award 2018 (USA), Sergei Slonimsky Composition Award 2018 (Russia), Léon Goossens Prize 2016 (UK), Lucerne Festival Academy Young Composer Seminar 2016 (Switzerland), Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra Award 2015 (TH), Rapee Sagarik Award 2018 (TH), Royal concerto orchestral composition prize 2017 (UK), Gabriel Prokofiev Nonclassical Music Competition (UK), Asia-Pacific Saxophone Composition Award 2015 (TH), SEADOM Composition Award 2015 (Philippines), Young Thai Artists Awards, Young Composers in Southeast Asia Competition 2013 (Germany) and many more. In 2017, he was a composer in residence at KulturKontakt 2017 (AIR), Vienna, offered by the Austrian Federal Chancellery Austria. In 2019, his “Smelly Tubes” was featured in CNN News World: “Young and Gifted”. His recent work, “Ohm-Na-Mo” was commissioned by Donaueschinger Musiktage for 100 years celebration in 2021.

Piyawat’s music explores possibilities of creating the amalgamation of sonic and visual arts; including integrating multimedia and music, deconstructing instruments’ s mechanism and physicality with sound production method, and involving Thai traditional music elements in new compositions. Louilarpprasert’s compositions have been performed more than 20 countries in Asia, Europe and United States. His music has drawn attention in numerous music festivals such as Darmstadt New Music Festival (Germany), Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), MUSIIKIN AIKA – Time of Music (Finland), European Creative Academy, International Composition Residency (France), Saint Petersburg New Music Festival (Russia), Kulturkontakt Residency (Vienna), Gaudeamus Musikweek (Netherlands), China – ASEAN Music Week (China), London National Portrait (UK), Mozart of Tomorrow (UK), Musica y Arte: Correspondencias Sonoras (Spain), Asian Composer League (Japan) and Dian Red Kechil Young Composers Residency (Singapore).

He collaborated with several established ensembles and orchestras including Tacet(i), Arditti, Alarm Will Sound, Arditti, [Switch~ Ensemble], Berlin Philharmonic Horn Section with Horn Pure, International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn Wire, Mozaik, Platypus, Meitar, Wet Ink, Lucerne Alumni, Omnibus, Orkest Ereprijs, Oerknal!, Vertixe Sonora, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Trickster Orchestra, Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra, Stockport Youth Orchestra, University Cincinnati Chamber Players, University of Austin Texas Chamber Ensemble, Vienna Improvisor Orchestra, University of Philippines Symphonic Band, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra, American Composer Orchestra, Elbland Philharmonie etc.

As an educator, he was awarded the Don Michael Randel Research Fellowship 2021-22 to conduct his new music course: P.I.Y. (Perform it Yourself) at Cornell University, Ithaca where he obtained his D.M.A. in music composition. He also holds M.M. in composition at Royal College of Music, London, B.M. in composition and conducting at College of Music, Mahidol University. His major teachers are Valeriy Rizayev, Dai Fujikura, Gilbert Nuono, Jonathan Cole, Kevin Ernste and Marianthi Papalexandri Alexandri.

Piyawat Louilarpprasert holds a DMA in composition from Cornell University where he was awarded the Don Michael Randel Research Fellowship to conduct his new music course: P.I.Y. (Perform it Yourself) as well as degrees from Royal College of Music (M.M.), London and College of Music, Mahidol University (B.M.), Bangkok. Piyawat was previously a faculty at Cornell University, Ithaca College, State University of New York.

Piyawat is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). In Thailand, he is serving as a chair and a program curator for Int-Act Festival (Thailand).