Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
ARN CHORN-POND, MUSICIAN
Arn Chorn-Pond is the founder of Cambodian Living Arts (CLA;
Click here
)
, an organisation dedic-
ated to reviving traditional music, dance and other Cambodian art forms that were nearly lost during
the Khmer Rouge years. Arn himself almost didn't survive that dark time. His parents ran a respected
traditional opera company in Battambang. This made them immediate targets of the Khmer Rouge,
which slaughtered more than 90% of performing artists, according to Arn. Twenty-five members of
Arn's immediate family, including five of his eight siblings, were killed.
But the Khmer Rouge needed to keep some musicians around to play their revolutionary hymns.
Arn was among several children in Battambang recruited to dance and play the flute and the
khim
(a
traditional Cambodian string instrument) at a local killing temple.
'They killed three kids who were slow to learn,' Arn says. 'I was a fast learner because I had music
in my blood. If there was no music at that time, I probably would have been killed. Music saved my
life.'
At the killing temple, Arn witnessed all sorts of atrocities. The Khmer Rouge made him play music
to drown out the sounds of the screams. In the late 1970s, at the age of 12, Arn was forced to trade in
his
khim
for a gun as he was recruited into the beleaguered Khmer Rouge army. He eventually man-
aged to escape over the border to a refugee camp in Thailand, where he was ultimately adopted along
with several other refugees by an American family from New Hampshire.
When Arn returned to Cambodia several years later, people in Battambang still recognised him as
'that little boy who played the
khim'
. He founded CLA in 1998.
Arn shared with us his top five places for cultural connections in Phnom Penh.
Amrita Performing Arts
(
www.amritaperformingarts.org
) 'They work with traditional Apsara dan-
cers to create new stories, and worked closely with CLA to organise the “Season of Cambodia” in
New York in 2013.'
Apsara Arts Association
(
Click here
) 'A great family-run organisation that's working with a new
generation of kids to preserve forms like Apsara and traditional folk dance.'
every evening in front of the National Museum.'
classes for at-risk youth are run by master theatre performer Ieng Sithul and are open to tourists. Many
of the kids here would be prostitutes if not for this class.'
Sovanna Phum
(
Click here
) 'They do a great job creating new stories and new dances out of old
Cambodian traditional forms.'
Classical Dance & Arts
PERFORMING ARTS
Plae Pakaa
