Thai traditional music concert series, Music at Chula, stemmed from Chulavatid, Thai traditional music performances that took place every first Friday of each month since 1989 at Chula Thai House as one of the main responsibilities of Office of Art and Culture. In 2011 after the completion of Music Hall in Art and Culture Building, Chulavatid concerts were relocated to Music Hall. Contemporary music and dance have been added later on, and the concert series was given a new name, Music at Chula. With a revamp of the presentation of the program to make it more accessible and attractive to the younger generations, Thai traditional concert culture and support have slowly increased over times.
Music at Chula has a goal to be a creative space with collaborations of organizations in and outside the university and pass on the innovation in Thai traditional music performances to the university community and the public. The concert series also plays an important role in providing performance experiences to students majoring in Thai Traditional Music, professors, adjuncts, and the community of professional musicians. Office of Art and Culture provides honorarium to every performer in the concerts.
During the time of COVID-19 pandemic, the university was temporarily closed, resulting in Music at Chula, and other works by the Office, to temporarily shut down. As the pandemic situation in the country gradually improved, the Office deemed it was important to continue its cultural promotion mission as a tool to help ease the society through the difficulties, and supplement income for musicians who were all heavily affected by the lockdown. Office of Art and Culture decided to adjust the mode of the program to online since July 2020, with safety and health of performers as the top priority. There were two concerts in July, and one concert each in August and September. The concerts were broadcasted through Facebook LIVE (https://www.facebook.com/cuartculture) and YouTube LIVE (https://www.youtube.com/c/cuartculture). The statistics from July to September 2020 show 77,600 views (as of September, 2020), which is approximately 20,000 views for each concert, or 400% increase of views from pre-COVID-19. The demographic shows the diversity of the viewers in occupations and their locations in various countries in Asia, Europe, and America.
The expense on organizing the concerts including honorarium for performers are subsidized by Office of Art and Culture budget in the amount of $5,000 each concert.
