Survivors of Cambodia’s War, Now on NY Stages

Almost 90 percent of artists were killed in Cambodia in the 1970s, when the extreme communist group Khmer Rouge was in power.  Arn Chorn-Pond was a child then, and he survived in a labor camp, ironically, by playing music. “The Khmer Rouge asked, ‘someone want to play music for us,’…

Cambodian Artists to Arrive on New York Scene

New York City has named April 13 “Cambodia Day” to mark the official launch of the arts festival “Season of Cambodia.” After years of hard work on the part of individuals on both sides of the globe, the city will welcome more than 100 Cambodian artists, who will feature in…

Cambodia’s Trauma, Rebirth Reflected in Khmer Sculptor’s Work

In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge murdered some two million Cambodians and sacked the country’s cultural treasure, attempting to exterminate all art, knowledge and religion. The struggle by Cambodians to recover from that terror, and to recover some of what was lost, is embodied in the revival of the arts…

In Art Show, Scarlet Woman Unravels Diaspora Dilemma

It was halfway through last year and the tempestuous and unpredictable rainy season was in full swing: grey, clouds thundered across Phnom Penh and, in a rice field on the fringes of the city, gusts of wind sent ripples through blades of emerald grass – ideal weather conditions for an…

Cambodian Researchers, Musicians Revive Ancient Harp

The story of the revival of an ancient Cambodian musical instrument: the pin harp. It’s shown as being played by maidens on the walls of the great Angkor Wat. But no modern ear has known the sound of the pin, until recently. Now, thanks to the work of Cambodian researchers…

Musicians Rebuild Cambodia’s Lost Ancient Harp

A Cambodian composer has revealed the sound of an ancient harp which has gone unheard for more than eight centuries. The pin harp is shown being played by maidens in the stone reliefs on the walls of the Angkor Wat temple complex.

Celebrate Art Museum Day at Asia Society with Free Admission

Asia Society Museum in New York City will offer FREE admission to all visitors on Saturday May 18 as part of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ (AAMD) Art Museum Day, which coincides with International Museum Day. Between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm the museum will offer complimentary access to our three…

Season of Cambodia Takes NYC

Cambodia once had a rich artistic culture, but it was nearly extinguished during the Khmer Rouge of the 1970s. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the restoration of artistic tradition began in earnest. Arn Chorn-Pond searched through the country, seeking out master artists to train a new regime of artists.…

New York Celebrates the Arts of Cambodia

Most of Cambodia’s artists – an estimated 80 percent – were killed when the Khmer Rouge ruled thecountry in the 1970s. The artists were among about two million victims of Khmer Rouge rule. Their skills and knowledge werelost because Cambodian culture is largely oral, passing from person to person through word of mouth.

After Royal Ballet Performance, Pride for Many Cambodians

Cambodia’s Royal Ballet performed in New York earlier this month for the first time in decades. The performance, part of the Season of Cambodia arts festival, was not just a pleasure for Americans to see, however. It also brought pride to many Cambodians who fled their home country and ended…

A Season of Cambodia in NYC Showcases Classical New Arts

An estimated 80 percent of Cambodia’s artists were among some two million victims of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s; their skills and knowledge were lost since Cambodian culture is still largely oral. But in the last two decades, a new generation of Cambodian artists has sought to revive…

Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich

The Metropolitan Museum’s Asian art department steered clear of contemporary work in the 20th century but is embracing it, big time, in the 21st, with an impressive survey of sculpture by the young Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich. Not only is this show good-sized but it’s also embedded in the permanent collection.…

Cambodian played flute to escape death in Khmer Rouge labour camp

Arn Chorn-Pond was a child in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. Born into a family of artists and musicians, he was sent to a children’s labour camp where he escaped death by playing his flute for the camp guards.  

5 Things: The Royal Ballet of Cambodia at BAM

For the next three days, BAM will play host to The Royal Ballet of Cambodia, which at one time only performed for “the gods.” Movements in Apsara Mera have been constructed by Her Royal Highness Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, a former prima ballerina, joining two traditional stories of Khmer culture: “Churning of the Sea of Milk”…

Delicate works from a time of terror

From 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia. Its leader, Pol Pot, envisioned a preindustrial society centered around small rural villages. He vacated the cities and forced everyone to move to the countryside where they were born. Artists, intellectuals, urbanites and anyone with even a hint of opposition were…

Dancers perform centuries-old Cambodian monkey dance at Guggenheim

Cambodia has a reputation – not a good one. Most of Cambodia’s children receive only two or three years of education and Cambodia is considered one of the most corrupt societies in the world. Mention of Cambodia often stirs up memories of Poi Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

Season of Cambodia Festival Explores Themes of Forgiveness and Renewal

Forgiveness has been one of the dominant themes of the recently concluded Broadway season. “I think I’ve had enough of revenge,” says the little heroine of “Matilda” when given the opportunity to push back against her tormentors. And the protagonists of “Kinky Boots” — a drag queen and a young…

‘To Do’ List: Royal Ballet of Cambodia

Science 14. See Whales: Giants of the Deep And the Twitterers who love them. We don’t need to make the case for the museum or its “Whales” exhibit (who doesn’t like whales?). So all you really need is an excuse to go, and this is a good one: a meet-up of the museum’s…

Your Weekend Starts Now: Top Pick – Shadow Puppets

Goings On About Town: Dance – Royal Ballet of Cambodia

The company kicks off its American Music Festival—twenty-five ballets with music by eighteen composers—with a series of thematic programs. “All Balanchine” features “Who Cares?,” set to Gershwin songs, with peppy orchestrations by Hershy Kay and new costumes by Santo Loquasto. The closer is Balanchine’s tongue-in-cheek showpiece “Stars and Stripes,” a…

PHOTO CALL: Season of Cambodia Presents Sor Neakabas Shadow Puppet Performance

As the final offering of the current theater season, Season of Cambodia presented the definitive masters of the dazzling ancient art form of Cambodian shadow puppetry with four free public, waterfront performances in Lower Manhattan April 25-28.

Photo Flash: Cambodian Shadow Puppet Troupe Wat Bo Visits SPIDER-MAN

The master puppeteers, dancers, and musicians of Cambodia’s premiere Shadow Puppet Troupe, Wat Bo-in New York City as part of the citywide Season of Cambodia festival-visited Broadway‘s SPIDER-MAN Turn Off the Darkthis weekend in between performances of their performances of Sor Neakabas (The Magical Arrowhead Dragon) at Brookfield Place, Winter Garden. In honor of the troupe’s…

It’s Monkey See, Do and Dance

Forty five minutes of monkey impersonations? Dressed only in undershirts and shorts, seven male dancers of the Cambodian Amrita Performing Arts institution held the audience’s attention on Sunday evening at the Guggenheim Museum with unfailing skill and charm. The dancers are all specialists in the role of the monkey from…

Royal Ballet of Cambodia Listing

Through the breathtaking delicacy, suppleness and strength of classical Khmer dance, this resplendent company recounts Cambodia’s mythical origins in “The Legend of Apsara Mera,” choreographed by Norodom Buppha Devi, princess and onetime culture minister of Cambodia. Last seen in Brooklyn more than 40 years ago — before the brutal Khmer…

‘Sor Neakabas’ (‘The Magical Arrowhead Dragon’)

This dragon comes all the way from Southeast Asia. As the final event in the citywide festival Season of Cambodia, the troupe Wat Bo will enact this tale with six-foot-tall shadow puppets presented as leather panels carved with intricate designs. Accompanied by a traditional orchestra of wind instruments, xylophones and…

Cambodia’s Trauma, Rebirth Reflected in Khmer Sculptor’s Work

In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge murdered some two million Cambodians and sacked the country’s cultural treasure, attempting to exterminate all art, knowledge and religion. The struggle by Cambodians to recover from that terror, and to recover some of what was lost, is embodied in the revival of the arts…

Me and My Shadows: Shadow Puppet Troupe

ME AND MY SHADOWS. The Shadow Puppet Troupe of Wat Bo will present “Sor Neakabas (The Magical Arrowhead Dragon)” at the Brookfield Place Winter Garden. The troupe will perform the nearly extinct art of Sbeik Thom, a royal form of shadow puppetry featuring exquisite giant leather panels.

Your Weekend Starts Now: Top Pick – Shadow Puppets

No need to pull any strings to see this magical puppet show. It’s a free performance of Cambodia’s premiere Shadow Puppet Troupe, Wat Bo, tonight through Sunday at 8 p.m. at the World Financial Center’s Wintergarden. This is the centerpiece of the citywide “Season of Cambodia” arts festival.

Celebrate the Cambodian New Year & Family Day

Choul Chhnam Thmei marks the traditional end of the harvest season when Cambodians gather with friends and family to enjoy the fruits of their labor. 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…

Remote Lands Co-Sponsors Season of Cambodia in New York City

Remote Lands Inc., the world’s leading ultra-luxe Asia travel designer, has teamed up with Amanresorts and the Phnom Penh & US-based Cambodia Living Arts to support Season of Cambodia, a festival celebrating Cambodian arts & performance taking place in New York City throughout April & May 2013.

Kong Nay Concert

Kong Nay is Cambodia’s premier virtuoso of the Chapei Dang Weng, a beautiful long-necked two string lute. One of the few great artists to survive the Khmer Rouge, he carries on a long tradition singing bardic songs with socially pointed, satrical lyrics – with a few love songs in the mix…

Opening Ceremonies Coverage

To celebrate the Cambodian New Year on April 13, Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) held an opening ceremony and festival at the Rubin Museum of Art.

Goings On About Town: Dance – K3

After a season devoted to Stravinsky, and another to Tchaikovsky, the company sets its sights on American music, with a spring run of works set to popular composers like George Gershwin and Richard Rodgers and knottier figures, including Charles Wuorinen and Charles Ives. Opening night (April 30) consists of four…

Cambodian Toe-Tapping Going Global

The troubadour wielding a stringed instrument and singing praises, dance tunes, love songs, histories or wry comments is a nearly universal figure in traditional music, from Appalachian banjo pickers to Moroccan gnawa musicians to West African griots to Japanese minyo singers. Kong Nay, who performed at the Asia Society on Saturday…

Video: Season of Cambodia, New-York Historical Society and Roman Vishniac at the ICP.

OLD GHOSTS, NEW DREAMS Cambodia Program Set for Film Society of Lincoln Center, Now thru 4/25

The Film Society of Lincoln Center previously announced Old Ghosts, New Dreams: The Emerging Cambodian Cinema (today, April 19-25). To be presented in conjunction with the citywide Season of Cambodia arts festival, FSLC will team with the great documentarian Rithy Panh to screen a fascinating survey of films from Cambodia.

NYC Weekend: Dance – “Olden New Golden Blue”

See an evening of Cambodian dance on Friday as Amrita Performing Arts brings “Olden New Golden Blue,” a work by Peter Chin, and “My Mother and I,” created and performed by choreographer Chey Chankethya, to the Abrons Art Center. It’s part of the “Season of Cambodia” festival. At 466 Grand…

Goings On About Town: Dance – “Works & Process” / “Khmeropédies III”

For the Season of Cambodia festival, the Khmer-French choreographer Emmanuèle Phuon presents her meditation on Hanuman, the monkey god, a well-known character in traditional Cambodian dance dramas. Hanuman is played by male dancers wearing masks and performing stylized animal gestures and playful acrobatics. Phuon set out to expand the character’s…

Video: April 18th Episode

(click on video on homepage;  SOC segment begins at minute mark 3:38, ends at 12:47)

“Old Ghosts, New Dreams”: Cambodian Cinema at Film Society

…I’m trying to forget things so as not to be too tormented. I’m doing my best to forget, and by trying hard, I really forget. When you remember, you have to fight against yourself. If you don’t resist, why remember? I was willing to follow them [perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge…

Season of Cambodia Festival: Creation and Postmemory

In connection with this conference, there will be an art exhibition April 10-May 4: Cambodia, The Memory Workshop: Artworks by Vann Nath, Séra, and Emerging Cambodian Artists The aftermath of mass murders is felt not only by the victims and their families but also by their descendants, who find themselves in…

Morning Links

“The heirs of a French art dealer are demanding that a Norwegian museum return one of its featured paintings, a Matisse that was confiscated by the Nazis in 1941 in Paris. The family of Paul Rosenberg, a prominent Parisian gallery owner, has documents showing that the painting, known as ‘Woman…

Ancient Art of Cambodian Shadow Puppetry Coming to Battery Park City

With giant leather puppets, a troupe of Cambodian artists are bringing a sacred tale of gods, princes — and monkeys — to Battery Park City next week. The master puppeteers, dancers and musicians of Cambodia’s acclaimed shadow puppet troupe Wat Bo will transform Brookfield Place’s Winter Garden into a theater for the ancient art of Sbek Thom,…

NY: “Season Of Cambodia” Celebrates Cambodian New Year

Photo Coverage: Mayor Bloomberg Proclaims SEASON OF CAMBODIA Day at Festival Opening

New York City will host more than 125 artists from Cambodia for a major celebration of Cambodian arts, culture, and humanities when Season of Cambodia lights up the city’s cultural landscape, now through May 2013. Distinctive works from master and emerging artists and scholars-in ritual, music, visual arts, performance, dance,…

An Ambitious festival of Cambodian arts is About to Hit New York

ON HIS lightning tour of South-East Asia last year, Barack Obama made a point of criticising Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, for his dismal human-rights record. Cambodians have indeed done horrifying things to each other (see the obituary). But what of America’s own legacy in the country? Cambodians have not forgotten…

Free & Cheap in New York: Friday, April 12 – Cambodians, Re-Joyce!

ANKA MAN. Famed pop singer-songwriter Paul Anka (“Diana,” “Put Your Head on My Shoulder”) will appear at J&R Music & Computer World. Cousin Brucie Morrow will host a Q&A with Anka, who penned the theme to “The Tonight Show” and co-wrote “This Is It” with Michael Jackson. He will sign…

Survivors of Cambodia’s War, Now on NY Stages

Almost 90 percent of artists were killed in Cambodia in the 1970s, when the extreme communist group Khmer Rouge was in power. Arn Chorn-Pond was a child then, and he survived in a labor camp, ironically, by playing music. “The Khmer Rouge asked, ‘someone want to play music for us,’…

The Week Ahead: April 14-20 – The Killing Fields, Still Haunting

Whenever the conductor William Christie and his ensemble, Les Arts Florissants, mount a production of a French Baroque opera, do not miss it. In this repertory Mr. Christie and his Baroque troupe are incomparable. After its exhilarating production of Lully’s “Atys” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2011 the…

Cambodia fest in NYC weaves art over rough history

One day, the world will speak of Cambodia without defining it by the raw, recent history of the “killing fields” and the Khmer Rouge. Consider that shift under way this month in New York, where dozens of the city’s top institutions are hosting an unprecedented festival of arts, new and…

A Bend in the River, Joyce Theatre, New York – review

A Bend in the River delivers on Cambodian choreographer-director Sophiline Cheam Shapiro’s long-held faith that her native classical dance, like ballet, is powerful enough to adapt to the times. Opening the citywide multi-arts Season of Cambodia, direct from Phnom Penh, the dance-drama fashions not only new words from the existing…

Khmer Arts Ensemble’s first Twin Cities performance

Revenge is bittersweet. Satisfaction comes from besting an adversary — but that satisfaction is fleeting. This is the central theme in Khmer Arts Ensemble’s delicately wrought “A Bend in the River,” presented Friday night by Northrop Dance at the State Theatre — and it is a potent one given the historical context…

THIRTEEN Announces Weekly Listings for NYC-ARTS

NYC-ARTS provides arts lovers in the tri-state area with an all-access pass to the New York City area’s myriad cultural offerings: from music and dance concerts, to the theater, museums and galleries-from the classic to the contemporary.

Cambodian Artists to Arrive on New York Scene

New York City has named April 13 “Cambodia Day” to mark the official launch of the arts festival “Season of Cambodia.” After years of hard work on the part of individuals on both sides of the globe, the city will welcome more than 100 Cambodian artists, who will feature in…

Season of Cambodia. Ancient Traditions and Modern Artists

The cultural festival Season of Cambodia introduces New York City to the ancient arts of a Southeast Asian kingdom and to its contemporary artists working in visual arts, dance, theater and performance art. This April and May, you can get a taste of Cambodia in more than 30 favorite cultural…

Dancing Well Is The Best Revenge

IN the beginning warring gods and demons churned the cosmic ocean, and celestial dancers called apsaras emerged from the froth. That’s one story about Cambodian dance, its origin myth. This tale is preserved in bas-reliefs on the monumental temples of Angkor, created (like the dance) during the Khmer Empire (802-1431),…

Goings On About Town – Nightlife: Le Poisson Rogue / Dengue Fever

158 Bleecker St. (212-505-3474)—April 13: Dengue Fever, a heterodox L.A.-based sextet, draws its inspiration from the Cambodian pop of the sixties and seventies and counts Ray Davies, Jim Jarmusch, and Peter Gabriel amongst its admirers. The genesis for the group began in the late nineties, when the keyboardist Ethan Holtzman embarked on…

NYC Weekend: Jon Hamm, Sugar Man Rodriguez, Leonard Cohen

“Season of Cambodia,” a series of exhibitions, concerts, dance recitals, films and talks, is in full swing at various venues around town: Check out Svay Sareth’s “Churning,” a site-specific mural depicting the Vietnamese-Cambodian Friendship Monument. Runs through May 27 at Brookfield Place Plaza. Information: http://seasonofcambodia.org.

Season of Cambodia: PREVIEW VIDEO

“Phloeun Prim, the CEO of Season of Cambodia and executive director of Cambodian Living Arts, gives NYC-ARTS an overview of the festival “Season of Cambodia.” It features more than 125 Cambodian artists at New York City’s stages, screens, galleries and public spaces, introducing audiences to Cambodia’s cultural treasures. The events…

Goings On About Town: Dance (Khmer Arts Ensemble: Week One)

As part of the “Season of Cambodia” festival—an assortment of discussions, concerts, art exhibits, and films—the Phnom Penh-based troupe performs “A Bend in the River” at the Joyce. The leader, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, is an innovator who has extended the realm of Cambodian ballet, melding classical steps and gestures—curled-back fingers,…

Rare Photos of Dancers From the Royal Ballet of Cambodia on View at NY Public Library for the Performing Arts, Now thru 5/11

MEMORY PRESERVED: GLASS PLATES PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE ROYAL CAMBODIAN DANCERS, an exhibit of rare images of five principal women dancers from the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, will be on display in the United States for the first time at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln…

Cambodian artist and activist Arn Chorn-Pond appears at Next Stage

Next Stage Arts Project presents Arn Chorn-Pond on Friday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m., at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, in a special appearance to benefit Next Stage as part of the Community Artists Performance Series.

Emerging Cambodian artists prepare for New York showcase

Cambodia’s contemporary art scene is set to take centre stage in New York, with a huge showcase of dance, music, visual arts, sculpture and installations. As part of the Season of Cambodia, 10 artist will be taking up residencies and two of those artists are being exhibited in Melbourne at a…

Travel + Leisure Spring 2013 Arts Calendar Highlights

New York City: The two-month-long Season of Cambodia festival is a collaboration between the Phnom Penh–based nonprofit Cambodian Living Arts (a T+L Global Vision Award winner) and dozens of cultural institutions citywide. Dancers, sculptors, puppeteers, and others will showcase Khmer heritage, both traditional (Royal Ballet of Cambodia) and contemporary (rock band Dengue Fever). April 9–May 25.

Cambodian brings story of genocide to younger audience

Beginning at age 11, Arn Chorn-Pond experienced firsthand the worst atrocities of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime. Taken to a work camp, where his talent for playing the flute helped keep him alive, Chorn-Pond witnessed torture, starvation, mass murder, and cannibalism. He was later rescued from a Thai refugee camp and…

All the Fizz in a New Year of Culture

The arts, from shadow puppet theater to psychedelic rock to new films to ballet, will be spread across New York City in April for the Season of Cambodia, an ambitious festival involving more than 100 artists across various New York institutions. It’s welcome exposure for a culture that has been restoring…

Cambodian Contemporary Arts to Be Showcased in New York Festival

By the time the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime finished filling the killing fields in Cambodia in the 1970s, more than 90 percent of the country’s artists and intellectuals had been wiped out. In recent years, Cambodia’s artistic community has slowly been rebuilding itself, and this coming spring some of the…

“Season of Cambodia,” a dynamic living arts festival, set for NYC in spring

New York City will host more than 125 artists from Cambodia for a major celebration of Cambodian arts, culture, and humanities when “Season of Cambodia” lights up the city’s cultural landscape in April and May 2013. Distinctive works from master and emerging artists and scholars—in ritual, music, visual arts, performance,…

SEASON OF CAMBODIA Festival Lights Up New York City’s Cultural Scene, April-May 2013

New York City will host more than 125 artists from Cambodia for a major celebration of Cambodian arts, culture, and humanities when Season of Cambodia lights up the city’s cultural landscape in April and May 2013. Distinctive works from master and emerging artists and scholars—in ritual, music, visual arts, performance, dance, shadow…

THE SUIT, THE MASTER BUILDER, and More Included in BAM’s 2013 Season

Joseph V. Melillo, executive producer of the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, today announced programming for the BAM 2013 Winter/Spring season, which runs from January 17 to June 9. The season comprises 12 theater, dance, music, and opera productions and features BAMcinématek series, BAMcafé Live weekend music events, artist talks, literary…

Brooklyn Academy of Music Announces Winter/Spring Season

A new production of Ibsen’s “Master Builder” and a repertory program from the Trisha Brown Dance Company with two New York premieres are among the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 12 theater, dance, music and opera programs in its winter-spring season, which was announced on Wednesday. The Ibsen play will include…