[caption id=“attachment_1142” align=“alignnone” width=“500”] Khmer Arts Ensemble performing “A Bend in the River.” Photo by John Shapiro.[/caption]
Metropolis Ensemble is pleased to announce a co-commissioning partnership with Cambodian Living Arts as part of Season of Cambodia to develop a new work by Cambodian composer Him Sophy. Nearly four decades after the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge, no major symphonic work has emerged in Cambodia to address the traumas of the late 1970s. Cambodian composer and Khmer Rouge survivor Him Sophy is composing music for Paṃsukūla that combines a Western symphony orchestra and chorus with Khmer instrumentalists and vocalists. The libretto of this new requiem is structured on a Cambodian Buddhist liturgy for healing the sick and offering merit to the dead, known in Pali as pamsukula (pronounced in Khmer as bangsokol) and is written by Buddhist scholar, Trent Walker.
On April 15, 16, and 17, as part of Season of Cambodia, Metropolis Ensemble will bring together six Cambodian instrumentalists and singers to develop methods for uniting traditional Cambodian musical and ceremonial forms with a Western chamber orchestra and chorus. An invitation-only work-in-progress presentation will take place on April 17. Kindly RSVP by April 8 (support@seasonofcambodia.org or 855-762-2013).
Go behind-the-scenes with Andrew Cyr, artistic director of Metropolis Ensemble, John Burt, co-founder of Cambodian Living Arts, and Cambodian composer Him Sophy.
[caption id=“attachment_1138” align=“alignright” width=“200”] Composer Him Sophy[/caption]
Him Sophy is professor of music at the Royal University of Fine Arts and the Royal Academy of Cambodia, and an instructor at the Northbridge School. Born into a musical family in Prey Veng province, Cambodia, Sophy has studied in Phnom Penh and Moscow and was a visiting artist in the United States during 2001-02. He has written many compositions for chamber, orchestral, film, and musical settings, including the acclaimed rock opera Where Elephants Weep, premiere 2008. His most recent commissions include a premiere in March 2011 at the Auckland Arts Festival and the score for Khmer Arts new dance production “A Bend in the River” at the Joyce Theater, April 2013 as part of Season of Cambodia.
Sophy’s new work, Paṃsukūla, adopts the Western tradition of a Christian requiem mass for the predominantly Buddhist Cambodian context. The libretto of this new requiem is structured on a Cambodian Buddhist liturgy for healing the sick and offering merit to the dead, known in Pali as paṃsukūla. This ritual is rich in symbolic meaning and is performed at Cambodian healing ceremonies, funerals, and memorial services. Given the enduring importance of performing arts in Cambodian culture, music is a singularly powerful vehicle for this healing.
Season of Cambodia lights up New York City’s cultural landscape in April and May 2013, with more than 125 artists from Cambodia for a major celebration of Cambodian arts, culture, and humanities. Distinctive works from master and emerging artists and scholars — in ritual, music, visual arts, performance, dance, shadow puppetry, film, and academic forums — will be presented by 30 of New York’s most renowned arts and educational institutions, marking an unprecedented city-wide partnership initiative to celebrate one of the world’s most vibrant and evocative cultures. Season of Cambodia is an initiative of Cambodian Living Arts.
Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) is a Phnom Penh-based NGO with non-profit status in the United States, founded in 1998 by artist and Khmer Rouge survivor Arn Chorn-Pond to preserve Cambodia’s traditional art forms. CLA began a new commissions program in 2003 to inspire a new generation of artists, composers, playwrights and choreographers to create new work.
Metropolis Ensemble is a professional chamber orchestra and ensemble dedicated to making classical music in its most contemporary forms. Led by Grammy-nominated conductor Andrew Cyr, Metropolis Ensemble gathers today’s most outstanding emerging composers and young artists to produce unique, innovative concert experiences. Founded in 2006, Metropolis Ensemble has commissioned over 85 works of music from a dynamic mix of emerging composers and has been presented by The Wordless Music Series, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, (Le) Poisson Rouge, and Celebrate Brooklyn!, BAM, and The New Victory Theater. Learn more…
Generous support for Metropolis Ensemble is provided by the American Chai Trust and Michael Cohn. Lead institutional support for Season of Cambodia comes from Ford Foundation, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.
