Results: Weird Music Wednesdays: The Thai Elephant Orchestra

Before starting this survey, were you aware of The Thai Elephant Orchestra, an ensemble of six-to-14 pachyderms trained to play extra-sturdy musical instruments under the direction of a human conductor?

The orchestra was put together by a conservationist, Richard Lair, and musician/neuroscientist David Soldier to play at The Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, a city in northern Thailand. Lair and Soldier were aware of elephants' affinity for and adeptness at music, which has been known by some for centuries. Prior to the formation of The Thai Elephant Orchestra, animals of that species were formed into bands for circuses such as that of Barnum & Bailey. Before finding out about these Thai elephants, had you previously heard any elephants play (anything resembling) music?

Since 2000, three Thai Elephant Orchestra albums have been been released. If you've listened to any of the music in the videos accompanying these questions so far, you may agree with me that these hefty orchestral critters aren't the most exacting of musicians , however fascinating the idea of elephants playing tunes is. If you don't already own any of their recordings, can you imagine purchasing any of the orchestra's music, much less listening to it regularly?

From what I've been able to learn about the orchestra, they've never toured, and the only place to see them in concert is at the elephant conservatory in Thailand where they live. Were you ever to visit Thailand, would you make an effort to visit the conservatory and see them perform?

Apart from field recordings of the elephants' natural sounds on at least one of the orchestra's albums, there are no elephant vocals--for lack of a better term?--on their recordings. Would you want to hear one or more elephants sing ("sing"?) along with their musical peers?