In celebration of His Majesty the King’s 80th birthday, a young Thai-American woman has volunteered to perform a concert featuring the King’s own songs and compositions.

The show, dubbed “A Concert Tribute for the King of Thailand,” is a dream-come-true for Dr. Kathleeya Stang, a 28-year-old ophthalmologist from Chicago. Born in the U.S. to Thai parents, Dr. Prinn Stang and wife Wanda, Kathleeya – or Nan, as she is known to friends and family – had long admired His Majesty King Bhumipol Adulyadej not just for his kind-heartedness as a ruler but more so for his musicality.

His Majesty is a world-renowned musician, composer, arranger and performer. His songs are part of every Thai’s repertoire of songs and are played and sung everywhere in the country. King Bhumibol took his first music lesson at age 13. He learned to play the saxophone and pursued classical music, although it was jazz and contemporary music that caught His Majesty’s fancy. He began composing at the age of 18. His first work was Saeng Tien in the blues style, and hence the name Candlelight Blues. To date, he has written 48 songs.

Candlelight Blues, however, wasn’t made public until after the release of his second composition, Love at Sundown. The King felt that his first song needed more polishing so he had it shelved for some time.

His third song, a sweet waltz titled Falling Rain, has been a hit among Thai listeners until now.

After becoming King in 1946, His Majesty continued to produce a steady flow of compositions under a variety of inspirations and circumstances. Examples of the songs written in this period include Blue Day, Dream of Love, Dream of You, and Love Light in My Heart. With her sultry voice and refreshing interpretation, Kathleeya will bring all these jazzy love songs to life during the concert

Thanks to her parents, who introduced her to Thai music and culture from the very start, Kathleeya grew up singing Thai songs. In fact, she learned to speak Thai largely from the lyrics of these songs. Interestingly, some of these songs were written by His Majesty. With their melancholic lyrics and melody, some of these royal songs have become Kathleeya’s personal favorites.

When she became a little older, Kathleeya began to nurture a dream to sing these songs publicly as her way of paying tribute to a man her parents had always looked up to as their King.

She tried to follow through with her dream by writing the Thai Royal Palace five years ago for permission to record and perform His Majesty’s music. She promised to donate to charity whatever proceeds she could generate from such musical undertaking.

She didn’t really expect something would come out of the request, especially after several months had passed without any word from the Palace. So when she got the thumbs-up last December, four years after sending her request, she could hardly believe it.

Under the musical supervision of Kitti Srepaurya, Dr. Kathleeya Stang’s concert will be held Dec. 3, at 6:30 p.m., at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club on Henri Dunant Road in Bangkok. Sharing the limelight with her is the 120-man Thai Air Force Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Manrat Srikranonda, national artist for music and a renowned expert on royal Thai songs, and his son Dr. Pathorn Srikranonda are behind the concert as senior consultants.