Despite some language barriers, the students from the three institutions were eager to learn from one another and work together. The Mahidol students helped greatly with translation (as Lao is similar to Thai). The daily program was varied and intensive as well. “In the mornings, we conducted workshops on different aspects, like rhythm and strings technique, where I taught basic bow hold and vibrato,” Qian Hui says. “It was really encouraging for me to witness the students’ vast improvement over a period of only four days. The one regret I had was not being able to learn the traditional Lao instruments due to time constraints. However, I was immensely happy with the end result and I look forward to future collaborations with the National Lao Music and Dance School and other music institutions in Southeast Asia.”
 
Sulwyn also greatly enjoyed his collaborative experience. “I enjoyed the challenging conducting experience: we only had three sessions of two-hour rehearsals to prepare all the pieces for the concert, and a big proportion of the orchestra could not really understand English. The language barrier certainly gave me an intensive practical experience in communicating as a conductor with few words,” he says. “My main priorities were to keep the energy and morale of musicians high, efficiently solve issues in the pieces to ensure everything would fall into place smoothly, and to craft sound interpretations of music of the three countries.”