Kalaya Phongsathorn has been appointed as Sankyo Flute Artist in 2023. She launched her first album under the title “Thai Contemporary Music for the Flutes” in 2022. The project consists of many commissioned compositions she has gathered over the years of collaboration with Thai contemporary composers. The album is currently streamed on various online platforms, and was featured in “The Flute View” online magazine in June 2023. In 2024, Kalaya performed the Asia premier of the piece “Spring Sonata” by Nicolas Bacri at the Singapore Flute Festival. Later on, she initiated the project “The Sankyo Collectives Bangkok” flute ensemble which performed at the Autumn Flute Fair in Singapore. In 2025, her engagement includes the collaboration with international artists such as Luisa Sello, Nora Lee Garcia. In August 2025, she will perform the music by Thai composers at the NFA Flute Convention in Georgia, Atlanta, USA.
Kalaya has been the flute and piccolo player of The Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra since 2011, and has been a guest player to the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as other orchestras in South East Asia and China. She also performs regularly with the Sawasdee Woodwind Quintet which she co-founded, the Million Wind Philharmonic as well as giving her solo and chamber recitals.
As a soloist, Kalaya appeared several times on the flute and piccolo with Pro Musica chamber orchestra, Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and The Million Wind Philharmonic, presenting a wide range of repertoires from Baroque to contemporary music. She premiered the work “ Piccolo Concerto : Dialogue du Axels” by Salvador Brotons in Thailand with the Million Wind Philharmonic in 2023. She has been a guest artist in several international flute festivals such as the Singapore Flute Festival, Kuala Lumpur Flute Festival, Malaysia and The Flutopia Flute Festival in Manila, Philippines.
Kalaya received her Bachelor Degree of Fine and Applied Arts from Chulalongkorn University and graduated with summa cum Laude (first class honors). She was selected as a member of the Asian Youth Orchestra and was awarded a full scholarship from the Austrian government to the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien in 2006. Kalaya pursued her Master Degree of Music at Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music, Thailand. Her principal instructors included Ass.Prof.Dr. Charunee Hongcharu, Ass.Prof. Worapon Kanweerayothin, Mr. Suncheep Vidhayanakorn, Univ.Prof.Mag. Robert Wolf (former principal flutist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra) and Mr. Roberto Alvarez (principal piccoloist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra). Her contribution to the development of the flute community in Thailand extends to organizing various major flute master classes and festivals since 2012, inviting world-renowned artists such as Robert Aiken, Trevor Wye, Jasmine Choi, Viviana Guzman and Julien Beaudiment.
Currently, Kalaya is an adjunct flute lecturer at the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music, the Rugby School Thailand and owns a private Music and Yoga Studio, Baanflute.
Kalaya Phongsathorn’s involvement with FluteFest Malaysia 2025
Workshop: “Applied Yoga Practice for Flute Player”
Jury for Youth Flute Competition 2025, Junior-High Category
Recital: “Echoes of the Imagination”
Festival Closing Concert