Composer
Prach’s compositional language explores the layers and contradictions of the sound worlds he encounters through his multiple musical identities: a Bangkok-born musician grown up with both Western and Thai classical traditions, an internationally active pianist, and a researcher entangled in the boundaries between historical performance practices and microtonal music. While embracing influences as diverse as Buddhist chanting, Josquin des Prez, Piphat traditions, Ravel, Partch and Grisey, Prach’s scores prioritise intelligibility and emotional immediacy.
In 2025, he was a resident composer with Het Muziek (formerly Asko|Schönberg Ensemble) conducting research and development of a new opera — Burmese Days, which will premiere in June 2027 at La Monnaie/De Munt. His monodrama Lesson for voice and piano had its premiere at the Opera Forward Festival (Dutch National Opera x Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam) in March 2026.
Recent works include a half-concert-length ensemble piece Ciaccona and Other Debauched Dances (2024) which premiered at the 2024 MA Festival Bruges (Belgium) and the Ars Musica Festival (Belgium); Karmic Songs (2023) commissioned by Camerata Variabile (Switzerland) for soprano Malin Hartelius; and Ligatures for string trio (2021) commissioned by and premiered at the IMS Open Chamber Music (Prussia Cove, UK).
In 2019, Prach was one of the four commissioned composers for the Endellion String Quartet’s 40th Anniversary in 2019, alongside Sally Beamish, Jonathan Dove, and Giles Swayne. The resulting Ritus: Four Portraits for String Quartet, premiered at the Wigmore Hall, was his first work that adapts a heptatonic Thai tuning to the classical ensemble.
As a performer, Prach is a founding member of the Linos Piano Trio, winner of the First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2015 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. In 2020, the ensemble released the premiere recording of C. P. E. Bach’s Complete Piano Trios with CAvi-music praised for its “virtuosity, presence of mind, and wit” by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Discography includes award-winning 2021 album Stolen Music, in partnership with Bayerischer Rundfunk/Deutsche Grammophon. The Strad praised the album as “compelling, dramatic, fascinating and unfailingly musical”. Currently, Linos is recording its Beethoven cycle on three different historical pianos in partnership with SWR. Outside the trio, he has given recitals with Steven Isserlis, Roger Chase, and Leonid Gorokhov.
Prach spent his childhood years in Thailand, attending the Satit Chula School in Bangkok, and receiving composition and piano lessons from Ajarn Suda Banomyong, Prof. Narongrit Dhammabutra, and Ajarn Anothai Nitiphon. He later was admitted with scholarship to the Yehudi Menuhin School under the guidance of Peter Norris, and subsequently won Princess Galyani Vadhana’s full scholarship to study at the Guildhall School, London, studying composition with Malcolm Singer and Julian Anderson. The late Princess Galyani Vadhana took a personal interest in Prach’s education, and the royal patronage continued until her death in 2008. During his studies in London, Prach was elected to be President of the Thai Association UK, maintaining a deep connection to Thailand, despite having moved abroad at a young age. Outside formal education, he had formative guidance from Mstislav Rostropovich, Richard Goode, András Schiff, Ferenc Rados, Eberhardt Feltz, and Thomas Adès.
An educator and scholar, Prach served as a faculty member at the Yehudi Menuhin School (2010-2015), Royal College of Music, London (2017-2025) and The Hague's Royal Conservatory (2020-2025). He was a research fellow at the Orpheus Institute, Belgium, working on historical keyboards with Tom Beghin (2017-2021). Prach has served on the jury of the Geelvinck International Fortepiano Competition, Birmingham International Chamber Music Competition, he has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire with the Linos Piano Trio.
Press
"… a work of great charm… [Ritus: Four Portraits for String Quartet (2019)]"