Human Orchestra plays Thai Elephant Orchestra: Thung Kwian Sunrise by Dave Soldier

The Composers Concordance Chamber Orchestra conducted by Thomas Carlo Bo premieres Dave Soldier’s Thung Kwian Sunrise at the Dimenna Center in New York City on December 7, 2012. The piece was originally improvised by the Thai Elephant Orchestra , an orchestra of up to 14 improvising elephants founded by Dave Soldier and Richard Lair in 2000, and is on their first CD. Hear the original version by the Thai Elephant Orchestra at It was transcribed from the CD by Wade Ripka and arranged by Dave . At the end of this premiere, the conductor asked the audience to guess the composer: they guessed Alan Hovhaness, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and Milica Paranosic: no one guessed that it had been improvised by elephants. Video by Daniel Palkowski, live recording by Gene Pritsker & Dan Cooper.