Career Highlights
Born in 1980, Rattanai Bampenyou started his first guitar lesson at the age of seventeen. In 1998, he attended College of Music, Mahidol University, where he studied guitar with Nalin Komentrakarn, Suvich Klinsmith, and Phillip Villa. When he was a Bachelor guitar student, he won Gold Medal prizes from National Youth Music Competition, the former name of SET Youth Music Competition, in 2000 and 2002.
Having received his B.A. (music) in 2002, he became a guitar and music theory instructor at the College. Two years later, he was awarded a full-scholarship from Office of the Higher Education Commission to study both Master’s and Doctoral degrees in music in the U.S. In 2005, he attended University of Miami, Frost School of Music and majored in instrumental performance (classical guitar). At the Frost School, he studied guitar with Dr. Rene Gonzalez, Rafael Padron, and Manuel Barrueco, who was the School’s visiting artist. In 2008, he also studied with Douglas Niedt, a three-time performer in Carnegie Hall, at University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Rattanai obtained both Master’s and Doctoral degrees in instrumental performance (guitar) from University of Miami, Frost School of Music in 2007 and 2012. His doctoral essay “A Performance Guide to the Multi-Movement Guitar Sonatas of Fernando Sor and Mauro Giuliani” offers many new theoretical perspectives on Sor’s sonatas op. 22, 25 and Giuliani’s op. 15. Currently, Rattanai is a full-time guitar instructor and Chair of Classical Guitar Department at College of Music, Mahidol University.
Education
2003 – Mahidol University (Thailand) – Bachelor of Arts (Music)
2007 – University of Miami (USA) – Master of Music
2012 – University of Miami (USA) – Doctor of Musical Arts
