Conducting & Artistic Leadership
Conducting & Artistic Leadership
For Dr. Chaipruck Mekara, conducting is the meeting point of artistry, education, and human connection. Whether leading professional orchestras, university ensembles, youth musicians, or international festivals, he believes every rehearsal and performance should inspire musical excellence, artistic curiosity, and meaningful collaboration.
Artistic Leadership
For more than two decades, Dr. Mekara has served as Music Director and Conductor of the Chiangmai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chiangmai Philharmonic Band — a sustained commitment to artistic leadership that has shaped the musical life of Northern Thailand and established both ensembles as vital institutions within the region's cultural landscape. Under his direction, the orchestras have grown in artistic ambition and reach, presenting programmes that span the standard symphonic and wind band repertoire, chamber music, and the premieres of significant new compositions.
His work as a conductor extends well beyond the podium. Dr. Mekara has led educational performances designed to bring orchestral music to new audiences, directed festival concerts that place contemporary music in dialogue with established repertoire, and conducted international guest appearances that have carried his artistic vision to stages across Asia. Each of these engagements reflects his conviction that the conductor's responsibility is not only to the score, but to the musicians, the audience, and the broader community that music serves.
Whether working with professional orchestras, university wind symphonies, or young musicians encountering the ensemble experience for the first time, Dr. Mekara brings to every rehearsal the same qualities: attentive listening, clarity of intention, and a genuine belief in the transformative power of music-making. His conducting is inseparable from his identity as a composer and educator — each role informing and deepening the others in ways that give his artistic leadership its distinctive character.
Featured Conducting Gallery
Conducting Orchestra
Conducting Wind Symphony
Festival Concert
Rehearsal
Guest Conducting
Youth Ensemble
Selected Conducting Activities
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Chiangmai Philharmonic Orchestra
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Chiangmai Philharmonic Band
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Chiangmai Ginastera International Music Festival
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Thailand Youth Symphony Orchestra
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Chiangmai Winds
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Payap University Choir
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Rising Star International Arts Festival
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China ASEAN Festival Youth Orchestra
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Chiangmai Symphony Orchestra & Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra
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Chiangmai Philharmonic Orchestra & Shanghai Chinese Orchestra
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Chiang Mai Concert Band Festival — Guest Conductor, October 2026
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International guest conducting, adjudication, and educational residencies
Guest Conducting & Collaborations
Dr. Mekara warmly welcomes invitations from orchestras, wind ensembles, universities, festivals, competitions, workshops, and educational institutions worldwide. He is committed to artistic excellence and to the kind of deep, collaborative music-making that leaves a lasting impression on performers and audiences alike. Whether working with established professional ensembles or guiding young musicians through their first encounters with the orchestral repertoire, he brings the same attentiveness, generosity, and artistic rigour to every engagement. He is particularly drawn to projects that foster mentorship, cross-cultural exchange, and the discovery of new music — and he welcomes the opportunity to contribute his experience and perspective to institutions and communities that share these values.
Selected Conducting Repertoire
Over the course of more than two decades, Dr. Chaipruck Mekara has conducted a broad repertoire encompassing orchestral masterworks, concertos, choral literature, musical theatre, and wind symphony works. His performances range from Classical and Romantic masterpieces to twentieth-century and contemporary compositions, reflecting a commitment to artistic excellence, educational leadership, and cross-cultural musical exchange.
The following selection represents some of the major works performed throughout his conducting career.
Symphonic Masterworks
- Ludwig van Beethoven — Egmont Overture
- Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No. 5
- Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No. 9
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — 1812 Festival Overture
- Antonín Dvořák — Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”
- Franz Schubert — Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”
- Gustav Holst — Mars from The Planets
- Georges Bizet — Carmen Suite No. 1
String Orchestra
- Benjamin Britten — Simple Symphony, Op. 4
- Ottorino Respighi — Ancient Airs & Dances Suite No. 3
- Peter Warlock — Capriol Suite
Concertos
- Sergei Rachmaninoff — Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
- Ludwig van Beethoven — Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15
- Ludwig van Beethoven — Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”
- Edvard Grieg — Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
- Frédéric Chopin — Piano Concerto No. 1
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Piano Concerto No. 20
- Felix Mendelssohn — Violin Concerto in E minor
- Joaquín Rodrigo — Concierto de Aranjuez
- Johann Nepomuk Hummel — Trumpet Concerto in E-flat
- Launy Grøndahl — Trombone Concerto
Choral & Vocal Works
- George Frideric Handel — Messiah
- Carl Orff — Carmina Burana
- Johann Sebastian Bach — Magnificat in D major
Wind Symphony Repertoire
- George Gershwin — Rhapsody in Blue
- Gustav Holst — First Suite in E-flat
- Gustav Holst — Second Suite in F
- Modest Mussorgsky — Pictures at an Exhibition
- Maurice Ravel — Boléro
- Leonard Bernstein — Overture to Candide
- Alfred Reed — A Festive Overture
- Alfred Reed — El Camino Real
- James Barnes — Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Niccolò Paganini
- Eric Whitacre — October
- Eric Whitacre — Sleep