Coffeelosophy - part III

(part III)

P & R Productions

Gafaae had the resources and she utilized them. With help from her company, she first put on recitals with her husband the baritone. They re-introduced themselves to the Thai society as singers-performers. Right around the same time, they were also invited as guest artists in concerts of local music organizations. Things happen for a reason, and soon Gafaae was offered adjunct voice teaching positions in the music departments of two renowned prestigious universities, while at the same time she and her husband received requests from music lovers to take them as their private students. P&R: P stands for Pradichaya and R stands for Ralph, and one music critic referred to them as, 'an operatic couple, a match made in heaven.' Together, they built their teaching studio, and also produced concerts and productions of their own, their students and invited guests - all of which happened during their 'spare time' When it rains, it pours, but this was for a good reason: a man who had left Thailand decades ago returned with his brand new opera composition in English based upon a Thai drama by HRH King Mongkut (Rama VI), an opera commissioned to raise funds for the renovation of the Grand PhrayaThai Palace in which a large section of the land was turned into a medical school and a teaching hospital. There was a lot of advertisement for the event. By then, the talk of the town was 'KhunGafaae?' - khun is a polite title given to polite people by other polite people, 'She's the top business woman, she also sings opera.' No one put her down for 'sing to eat, dance to eat,' anymore. And by the time the famous opera production took place, Gafaae's youngest baby girl was barely four months old.

The decision

None of these was by any means a full-time job. Gafaae was on cloud nine, but she was exhausted maintaining the balance of her highly competitive business, her teaching, her performing, and her three boys and one girl. When she looked at the love of her life she was filled with worry, for he looked exhausted from being sleep deprived - his waking up at four every morning in order to beat the Bangkok traffic to get to school by six, and having gone on way past midnight every night because of the teaching, performing and socializing could not last forever. Gafaae asked herself if this was worth it. By then, both her parents had retired from their positions; yet, she was not appointed as their successor. Her business was at the point that either she gained total control or she would have to move on. On the peforming front, both Gafaae and her husband felt they fell into the 'local' category, but the even greater frustration came from being so far away from the mainstream singing culture and the consequent lack of access to teachers, coaches and more companies; not to mention all the other factors which are important in order to further their study in order to add to their singing and stage craft. Gafaae realized that she had to make a decision.

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Coffeelosophy

(partII)

Putting her dream on hold

While studying first as an undergraduate and then as a graduate student, all the teachers, directors, and coaches kept telling Gafaae and even her future husband that they both were too young for an operatic career, that they should be patient and wait until they were 28...30....32....older so that their voices had time to grow and settle into the repertoire they would perform. Gafaae had a tougher time since the teachers were too worried about figuring out the right 'fach' for her. She had a rich warm timbre of a mezzo but also a lot of ringing high notes. Was she a mezzo or a soprano? What should we do with Coffee? She graduated with a lot of confusion. Suddenly, the very dear thing that was the biggest part of her life was taken, stripped, and torn down. Since Coffee and the Voice were one, she lost her most trusted friend - herself-

Her mother could not have found a better time to make her this wonderful, out-of-this world, unsurpassed business proposition. While looking for her own 'Coffee-identity' she and her husband had their first child. Like all new parents, they fiercely felt that they had to provide and protect their baby boy, and since being a clerk at a law firm and working retail while trying to gain more singing experience would not be sufficient, Gafaae decided to pack up her small family and move to Bangkok, where she would remain for the next 13 years with three more additions to the family.

After the first five-years

Success was the key word, and success it was! Gafaae, although working under her parents' direction, but still with the belief that soon she would have total control of the enterprise, put in a lot of hard work and it paid off - she was on top of the world. One of the topmost leading business(wo)men she was, and standing by her side was a loving husband with his very highly respected and prominent job as an international school teacher at one of the best schools in Thailand. They were proud parents of three happy and healthy boys. They dined at five-star restaurants and took vacations at their own beach condo and mountain-top get-away villa, and they were regular guests at the Ambassador's residences of several countries. When Gafaae was stressed from work she went to her favorite jewelry stores and, judging from what she brought home with her each time, she was stressed quite often. Still, with all the success she had, she woke up everyday with the same thing that popped into her head - Why am I NOT singing and what am I doing here?

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Coffeelosophy!!!

(part I)

A fancy name for 'About Us' in which to tell our audience about the philosophy behind the whole La CoffeeMelodie Suite idea!!!!

Why Coffee?

Because 'Coffee' is the English equivalent of a nickname given, at birth, to the soprano behind La CoffeeMelodie Suite.

Who is Coffee?

Once upon a time, in a far away land, a baby girl was born. There was nothing extraordinary about her, except that she came with a head full of thick dark hair that resembled one of The Beatles, and a pair of huge dark-colored eyes. What really struck everyone, though, was that her skin color was reddish brown, unlike her fair-skinned mother or her deep, dark brown-skinned father. That- along with her father's addiction to coffee- was when they decided that her nickname was to be 'Gafaae,' which translates to 'Coffee' in English.

What about Melodie, and why is it not spelled the normal way?

If there was anything else special about baby Coffee - besides her thick head of dark hair, big black eyes and her unusually dark reddish brown skin - it would be her voice and her musicality, which shone through even at a very young age. The course of life has taken Coffee from her homeland to the western part of the world, back to her homeland, then back once again to this part of the world, where she finally has a chance to fulfill her dreams both as a musician and as a person who wants to make the world a better place. Her life's journey has given her the opportunity to explore things from different aspects, to try different things, and to put all that she has learned and experienced together to create something else even better.

So, while at first glance there is nothing remarkable about her, there is really nothing normal about baby Coffee, now a fully-grown adult who loves fiercely her family and her music. When Coffee makes melody, she goes beyond simply making 'melody.' This is why we think that, in naming her enter prise, it can be anyhing but normal. CoffeeMelodie, therefore, fits very well with her unusual character. We make it La CoffeeMelodie Suite because there is more than just a soprano in this Coffee.

From Coffee (bean) to a voice major?

At the tim e Coffee was growing up, the Thai phrase 'sing to eat, dance to eat' extended its meaning to professional musicians. Child-stars were frowned upon and would not be recognized until much later, and no good parent would support his child's musical talent. In fact, they would try to suppress and shield it. Just like anywhere else in the world, even up until now, the music profession was not regarded either as a real career, nor a proper career for scholars and those from 'good' fa milies. Baby Gafaae was not an exception. Her parents tried hard to guide her away because there were already two successful (yet still not noble) musicians in her father's side of the family.

Throughout her life, Gafaae has had to fight for her beliefs. It was drilled into her head that she was to go to 'real' school, to graduate with hgh rank, and to carry on the family's import/export marketing business and to continue building the business empire. She was allowed to sing only at special occasions and only with the pieces that were chosen for her. Sadly a nd confusedly, she obeyed. One day, however, in a land far away from home, a young adult Coffee ready to go off to college was asked, '...with so much passion in music and that singing voice you have, why don't you apply to a music school so you can have formal study? Why not follow your dream and make it come true?'

Up to the present day, Gaf aae recalls only two wake-up calls, and the first was that very question. She secretly applied to a music school in the northeast and, with help from family friends, went for an audition. Only after she received her acceptance from the college did she break the news to her parents. Instead of congratulations, though, her mother showed up at her doorstep. After a long lecture, her mother decided to let Co ffee attend the music school to learn 'how to' sing (chuckled), so that her daughter would have her 'fun' instead of getting a 'real' education, but only after asking from Gafaae that she would promise to return home to Thailand immediately after her graduation where, with guidance, she could take the business and expand its empire into the next century. If her mother had paid attention, though, she would have realized that Gafaae never ga ve her that promise. She had put her hands together and 'wai' her mother with her head bowed to her chest - a manner that expresses respect to the elderly- but the promise was never made. Later on, Gafaae realized how passionate she felt about singing and kept buying time to keep her away from the family obligations, to more studying (how much more studying can there be for singing?) to getting married to the man that she loved - a law degree graduate who came to the music school for an artist diploma in opera - whom she met on stage - while she was still an under graduate student - at the opening of the second act of Puccini's opera La Boheme.

To be continued....

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So long, farewell--(NOT)The Von Trapp Family

This is too good not to share!!!!!

Happy Birthday, my sweet Justin

It's Justin's birthday today, he's eleven. Justin is number 3 out of 4 in our family - he's our youngest son. When he was born, he weighed nearly 10 pounds, if my doctor didn't induce me (two weeks before full term) he would have been bigger than everyone in our family. Justin had a full head of black hair just like his brothers, the eyes were big and more almond. - shaped. Of the three boys, he got the best looking chin , my 'Thai' nose, and fair skin. His first cry was so quiet, almost like a cat's purr and I didn't believe that it was actually a cry, since both Brendan's and Nicholas' baby cries were very loud. and could wake up the whole neighborhood. As a baby, Justin was calm and quiet and he started to talk much later than Brendan and Nicholas. We were living in Thailand at the time and all our kids were brought up in bi-lingual environment. Justin would have the hardest time expressing himself and I could tell that he tried to make the best of his limited vocabulary. He's also known as strong-willed determined kid who always fights for what he believes is right (still does) If rules are set, and they make sense to him, he'd strictly go by them. But, if he feels that they are not reasonable, you would never get him to follow them! I have to laugh every time when Justin stands up to his belief - he's not any different than me! I had such a hard time growing up because I was brought up in a strict household, that, plus having gone to a Thai school for all 'refined' young ladies, which put even more restrictions to my need to be independent. I was always the one who stubbornly broke the rules, if I believed that the rules were 'wrong' and 'unreasonable' I got myself in troubles many times. Now, seeing how Justin and I are so much alike, I have to use what I know to make it pain-free for him, to function well within a society. He's also fiercely loyal to his brother Nicholas, who believes in a non-confrontational peaceful way of life. There were many incidents of an almost 2-year-old Justin going out of his way to 'protect' his 4-year-old brother in pre - kindergarten. His limit in vocabularies didn't stop him. In his attempt to scare away the big bullies (K-1) he would string together all the words he knew and screamed them out repeatedly."PeSin drives the van, PeSin drives the van, PeSin drives the van" as he put his tiny little body between Nicholas and the bullies. The so-called K-1 bullies covered their ears and quickly ran away. Justin was also notorious in his pre-k, k, and grade schools of putting in requests to be seated with different groups of students in his classes because other children - ".......don't pay attention to the teacher, that was very wrong, and it bothers me" Last year in fourth grade, it took a homeroom teacher, a counselor and his school principal some 2 plus hours of sitting and talking, even begging him to please finish the PSSA test. They got him to finish it and the result turns out that he was above average. He explained to everyone that he didn't want to do it because he didn't feel that it was necessary since he just did the school foresight test and that should have been enough. We did not talk or discuss about the PSSA therefore we did not influence him in this matter. I believe that he finally agreed to finish the test only because he didn't want to get his teachers and his school in trouble. I still have fears that Justin could seriously get himself in troubles because of his fairness and his righteousness. But then again, he's very smart. Hopefully he will have easier time blending his own rules from black and white to something more compromising. He's also very sweet, very kind, and, as I said before, is fiercely loyal to the ones he loves. When our little Kaitlyn came along, Justin would stay up with me to help me with his little sister. He's very proud to finally become a bigger brother and this never changes. His sweetness and earnestness touch people around him. Last school year, the school counselor and his 4th grade teacher were involved with helping him see the world from other people's perspectives - or, plainly, to help him understand that things will not always be the way Justin sees and wants them to be. Justin understands, but probably still doesn't agree. At the end of the school year, they were sad to see him leave, and they had tears in their eyes when they said goodbyes.

I asked Justin what his wish was for his birthday. Instead of running down a gift list, he simply told me that he wanted ice cream cake with 'kao niew' - a delicious sweet sticky rice cooked in coconut milk and coconut sugar. He'll get this wish today, plus a few other things.

From a coffee bean to an opera singer -- continue

Now that I told you a little bit of the story behind Thai nicknames, I can continue with my given nickname.

At his first glance at me, my dad burst out his impression, "Her skin color is as dark as roasted coffee beans" beaming, he reached for me. My mom -who never told me how she actually felt about that comment - assumed that my dad wanted to name me กาแฟ because of my (dark) skin color (as dark as coffee bean)

กาแฟ = Gafaae = Coffee There! You have it! I proudly present my nickname - Gafaae or Coffee.

My dad explained to me when I was a lot older that what he said didn't have any negative connotation to it. (Right! Not to HIM) He was just amazed to see a cute little baby (me) with dark skin, big black eyes, jet black hair that was so thick and shiny, and looked cropped as if I was one of The Beatles (maybe because they were so popular at the time - Now you know to which generation I belong). Because he was so excited to see me - his first born, he didn't realize that the story behind my name would be told over and over by close, and not-so close relatives, and he felt sorry that I had to put up with it for all these years! Later on, I was grateful that he didn't say "She looks like The Beatles, let's name her John, Paul, George, and Ringo" Now, you try adding 'Nong' to those!

Ok, so I became NongGafaae to everyone. When I was very young, I didn't like the name, and often felt embarrased when I was asked. Most common comments that came right after would be, "Oh...you're so dark you must be Black Coffee" (Gafaae Dum กาแฟดำ). I would get very angry and started making faces at the person(s) who made this comment, which then brought on another comment, " Uh..oh, now you're angry. You need to add a lot of milk and sugar to the coffee" (Gafaae sai namtaan sai nom กาแฟใส่น้ำตาลใส่นม) I was only a little girl, raised in a culture that taught me to be respectful to adults, as a kid, I could only swallow my feelings. Now as an adult, a mother myself, I remind myself to carefully choose my words around children. Things that are not that big of a deal to us, might be a big deal for children.

My mother, we never spoke about it, but she later started to call me 'Faae' short for Gafaae - which, on its own has no meaning - but I have a feeling that it was her way of helping me out. I wasn't embarrassed anymore when was asked for a nickname since it was just 'Faae' - a meaningless word that was just cute-sounding (Please don't forget to add Nong to the front of the name - NongFaae - now, doesn't that sound much better - and super cute!!!) Little did I know, when I later came to The United States, this shortened nickname would have great effect on my personality into adulthood- specifically relating to my self-esteem and self-confidence.

Hmmm.... Should I change the title to "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Naaaah!! Let's continue with the story.

My parents' business had a lot to do with westerners and those of western descents The Thai word for westerners and the like is farang ฝรั่ง - the same word also means guava, a delicious fruit that I turn to whenever I feel that I need to go on a diet. How a westerner is related to the fruit I have yet to find out. My first encounter with the farangs (oh, yes, all ex pats in thailand adapted the word and have been using it as an English word) was when I was a little more than three years old (yes, I remember!!!) There were two , one Australian and one British men. I called them LoongNoel and LoongJack. Loong means 'older uncle' Again, with the Thai's respect system, we call people by relating their ages (by estimating how old we think they are - from the way they look) to our parents. Well, in this case, my parents asked me to call them Loong I didn't figure that out on my own! Anyway, my two farangs spent so much time with my parents and I felt close to them. (Also, every time they visited Thailand, LoongJack would bring me the cutest teddy bears!) They first attempted to call me Faae, but failed miserably. Every time my name would be pronounced differently as if they were referring to different persons. They giggled and gave up, and called me "Coffee" From then on, my farang nickname is Coffee, while my real one remains 'Faae'. You know what, I did not get a single 'coffee' comment from any of the farang Loong. Whether they thought that having 'Coffee' as a name was odd, I'd never find out since they never made any comment. Later observation taught me that the farangs' mannerism is quite different than the Thais' The Thai adults - those who love you and mean well will comment and criticize you (the younger ones) and give you unsolicited advice relentlessly. The farangs that are close to me will make a comment only when I ask for it. With just the right amount from both Thais and farangs, it would be perfect!

There was one thing, though, that I did, that stopped people from paying attention to my name (or anything else about me - "Oh, she's so dark, just like her dad" "Why is she so tall? She doesn't look 'Thai' at all") It's the singing. Every time I sang - which was all the time - they (the adults) literally stopped and listened. I was told that I started singing even before I could walk, that my singing voice was big, full, and warm - not the sound that anyone expected to come out of a child's mouth. If someone has proof for that it would be my LoongJack, with whom I lost touch since the early 80's! He had several recordings of my singing. I have a lot of memories about how I'd burst into songs anywhere and at any time. I'd remember being on a bus going into the city with my grandparents and I would start singing. I'd be walking in a department store and burst into song. I'm not talking about singing children's ditties, I was singing songs that were played on radio stations at the time. Thanks to my parents who always have the music in their hearts. They'd sing together, play the recordings, and took me to places where there were live performances. Also, the hired help around the house, who listened to their favorite radio station while doing chores. My parents told me about the time that they took me to a small concert, and before they knew it, I was up on stage (uninvited) and started to sing along with the performer. Yikes! I can't imagine how awful that was for the singer and the embarrassment I caused my parents! I don't remember how that ended, but do remember very well through my pre-school years that I was not to run up and take over the stage from the singer, or, the police would put my parents in jail. The thought of my parents being put away really scared me, and stopped me from trying to take the stage. Little it did to my desire to be there, singing away. It was so bad that it hurt - have you wished for something so badly that it hurts? That's the feeling. I believe that my parents sensed it. From way back then, even until now, the notion of singing and wanting to become a singer was not a usual career choice. My mother, especially, kept telling me over and over that it was ok to sing for relatives (especially when my mother was the one making the demand), but never ever sing in public - not on the stage, and never, ever sing for money!!!! Here's a Macauley Caulkin Home Alone moment for you. (((Gasp))) As it turned out, I did everything my mother told me not to do.

Well, a small coffee bean was going on a big journey!

From a coffee bean to an opera singer - an intro

I simply started out as a coffee bean.

Hi, I am Pradichaya from Bangkok, Thailand. Many years ago, when I was born, I was given this beautiful name - Pradichaya . It's Sanskrit, and I was told that its meaning is 'a person who speaks with honesty' Also, my name was to match my mother's 'Sutcharit' - honesty.

But I was also given another name. Just like any Thai, we have nice long lavish first names. But because of the nice long lavish names, our parents would come up with nicknames for us to simplify the process of calling their children, especially when they are in trouble and parents are angry. Who has time and patience to call out fancy long tongue-twisters too difficult to pronounce anyway? (Never mind that they were the ones who gave us these names!) Nicknames usually come from favorite pets - cat, mouse, pig, elephant (they sound better in Thai, really) - anything but dog (no dog - it's considered rude, disrespectful and insulting all the way up the family tree), things, anything cute - they're big on insisting that their kids will be cute forever.

To sum it up, we often hear: Maew-cat, Mu-pig, Noo-mouse, Chang-elephant, Fa-sky or the color blue, Sai-sand, Naam-water, Mamuong-mango, Shompu-rose apple, Chompu-pink. My favorites are names that derived from English (they're all considered cute): Jawd, Jeb, Cookie, Pinky, Top, Mikeun, Samy or My, etc. These names are equivalent to George, Jeff, cookie, pinky, top, Michael, smile, respectively. To top it off, children are referred to as 'Nong' by parents, relatives, family friends, hired help in the household (lived in maids, nannies, drivers, gardeners) Nong literally translates to younger sister and brother, also indicates the respect that the person has for you (if you're called 'Nong') and for your parents - when added to the already cute and adorable names, it emphasizes that the already cute and adorable names are even more cute and adorable. Here are some samples of how we (Thais) are referred to: NongChang, NongTop, NongNoo, NongShompu, NongJeb. The term Nong remains with you for a long, long, long time, may be until you grow old - really, really old.

At this point, you probably wonder: To which nickname is she referred?!?!?!?

If you haven't found out already (of course not, then you wouldn't be wondering) I'll fill you in after I come back to the blog. (No, it's not coffee bean - though, that sounds pretty good)