After our workshop and concert at Soundskool in Siem Reap, we had some free days because the entire country was only holiday for the King’s birthday. For this reason, we decided to visit some of the breathtaking temples such us Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm, seen in the Tomb Raider. We were deeply inspired by their impressive constructions and rich cultural history.
We woke up at 04:45 to go to Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious monuments dating from the 12th century. We wanted to see the sunrise but unfortunately the sky was cloudy. Nevertheless, the temple itself, and the fact to be there and see everything was AMAZINGLY IMPRESSIVE.
Inside of the temples, we could see some wall carvings showing traditional Cambodian instruments. Some of them, we already saw during our workshops in Phnom Penh. For us, it was very interesting to see them again in the temples which were built a thousand years ago.
Moreover, in the temples there were some fascinating places where people made their offerings to the Buddah and Hindu Gods We could appreciate their respect, silence, and dedication to their God.
We enjoyed our trip here and were inspired by the rich cultural history. We definitely gained more ideas for our own music and musical journey through this experience.
Check out these monkeys!!
Near the Baphuon temple there were so many monkeys. They were surprisingly calm and seemed to ignore us humans! We enjoyed observing them.
Full of culture and markets!
Siem Reap seems to be a really nice city full of markets and traditional culture. The musical activity seems to be growing thanks to the impulse of music schools like Soundskool, the place where we performed and premiered Bosba Panh’s piece. We are very happy to contribute to the cultural increase of Siem Reap!
Hello from Siem Reap, a city of wonderful temples and traditional culture in Cambodia! We left from Phnom Penh early in the morning at 8am and arrived at 3pm. After arriving, we immediately went to Soundskool to prepare for our performance and workshop for children.
Soundskool is a local music school in Cambodia with a new location in Siem Reap that just opened a couple months ago! They are teaching many children’s music classes and private lessons.
This was our first time doing a workshop and performance for kids and we had a blast!
We started by introducing our instruments! The kids loved Antoine’s shiny saxophone and he played the theme from Harry Potter. Then, Sara showed the super powers of the clarinet and how soft it can play. Finally, Cindy charmed the children with her playing of the swan from the Carnival of the Animals, by Saint-Saëns.
Time to Sing!
Next, we involved all of the children and adults by teaching them the song “do-re- mi” from the musical, The Sound of Music! This was a great way to introduce the major scale. We had so much fun singing with the students, staff, and parents at Soundskool. Two wonderful students accompanied us on the piano!
Our world premiere of our piece by Bosba Panh
We finally performed Bosba Panh’s piece composed for us, Le Danseuses de Rodin! This was our first performance in the world and in Cambodia. We couldn’t be happier to have shared this music here.
After our performance:
We had the opportunity to chat with the staff at Soundskool and hear about the music scene in Cambodia. We were so happy to have been able to share our music and make music together with the students. We’re already looking forward to our performance and workshop at the Soundskool in Phnom Penh.
P.S. Look at this!
When we went back to our hotel to put our stuff we managed to fit all of our instruments, bags, and ourselves into one tuk tuk, it was a memorable ride!
From 1975 to 1979, Cambodia went through a very tough and dark time. During the rule of Khmer Rouge, 25 percent of population lost their lives because of genocide. Most of the musicians, artists, and intellectuals died during these 4 years.
We would like to know more about the influence it has had on the music, people, and arts in general in Cambodia. Therefore, we visited the Genocide museum in Phnom Penh in between our busy schedule.
It was heart-breaking and sad for us to see the torture rooms and photos from the victims. The Cambodia composer Him Sophy composed a requiem for them as a memoriam. We learned so much from the sad history and hope the victims could rest in peace. Also, we hope that the arts could be a way for people to remember and prevent history from repeating itself.
Him Sophy: A Requiem for Cambodia Video from Combodia Living Arts
A nice evening with a cello student from RUFA
We asked Tou Tou, a cellist who studies at RUFA, to be our tour guide in the evening. Tou Tou introduced us the independence monument and showed us the statue of the King Norodom Sihanouk. He told us about how the king was actually a musician himself and that he composed many pieces. Also about how musical culture was flourishing before the Khmer Rouge. He showed us this video of how the same Independence monument area looked like in the 1960’s as well as the composition by the king. Unfortunately, it is only available through this link on facebook!
After that, we went to eat some nice street food! Tou Tou is around the same age as us so it was a great experience to chat with a music student in Cambodia and hear about student life here. It seemed basically similar to our own studies but there is not so much chamber music courses and contemporary music. However, it seems that Cambodian traditional music classes are a big thing here!
Tomorrow we’re heading to Siem Reap to premiere Bosba Panh’s piece!
Feel free to comment below with a question for a musician in Cambodia! First five questions will receive a postcard sent from Cambodia.
We can’t believe it’s only our second day here! Today was full of unexpected surprises and discoveries.
Morning Sessions:
We started our day at 8:30 each individually having a session with one to two people who play our own instrument. It was a nice way to connect and chat with the students through our shared instrument!
Sara: Today I played some duets with a student who just started playing clarinet one month ago! I couldn’t believe how well he plays after one month and his main major is singing. Many of the students at RUFA seem to be multi-talented and curious to learn many different types of music and instruments. I was also able to catch some of the traditional music rehearsals going on at the school today which was amazing!
Cindy: I met one of the cello student today. She told me that she was very worry about the mistakes she made while playing the cello. We worked on some fingers and bow exercises according to the piece she is playing at the moment and we were focusing on clarify those confusing passages. I showed her some tricks I usually do for my own practice and it also works very well on her! She is very inquisitive and observed everything I did on my cello and do it very well! We are both happy about the amount of work we have done today and we finished our section with some nice body stretching to help us relax!
Antoine: It was very inspiring to work with the students of the Royal University of Fine Arts! We started the saxophone lessons with some stretching and breathing exercises in order to feel good physically before starting playing saxophone. Besides, we focused on the posture and tried to solve together the musical questions the students had. It was really nice to let me influence by their inspiration and amazement, thanks to all of you! I also had the chance to observe a choir lesson where they practiced a song in latin and the national Cambodian anthem. A very exciting experience full of enthusiasm and creativity.
After our individual sessions we also met as a group, because yesterday’s session with all of the students who were available (including traditional music students, percussion, etc) was such a great time, see previous blog post!
Lunch time:
After the sessions we had a nice lunch at the Museum Cafe next door. Sara tried tamarind tea for the first time and Cindy and Antoine had some delicious fresh passion fruit tea!
Afternoon sessions:
This was possibly the best part of our day! We had some new faces so we started with another introduction and question session. The students at RUFA asked us about the origin of our project, why Cambodia, and how we feel about Cambodia so far. We also asked some questions that we’ve been having about them like why they chose their instrument/major and what kinds of courses they take.
This eventually led to mini performances of a huge range of traditional Cambodian instruments and songs that they were able to share with us. The most of the music haven’t been written down and some of them were played even before Angkor Wat (12th century). We were also impressed by their circular breathing techniques which they must do for playing some of these instruments.
As exchange, Antoine also shared a piece he’s been working on In Freundschaft (In friendship) by Stockhausen. After Antoine’s performance, some students came and chatted with him about their feeling after listening to his playing and was very curious about the different characters in the piece.
It was a real musical and cultural exchange!
We ended session with some more group rhythm and improvisation games.
Finally, another nice surprise!
Cindy’s cello, the Groke, came back! We found him sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for us.
Happy Cindy with Mr.Groke!
Oh là là! Look what is this!
We consider our selves as an inquisitive and curious ensemble so we agreed to try something special as our dinner today: Creepy Fried Tarantula dipped with sauce and lime. Actually it tasted very chewy! 🕷
Tomorrow is a free day for us. Keep following our amazing trip with more surprises!
With our lovely new friends at the Royal University of the Fine Arts!
Arrival in Phnom Penh!
Oh no! Cindy’s cello is missing! To begin our amazing journey, Cindy’s cello, Mr. Groke, is on his own adventure now. According to the report from the airport, he’s possibly still in Hong Kong airport waiting to come and meet us. Let’s cross our fingers for hoping Cindy’s cello could come and meet her as soon as possible!
Our first Tuk Tuk experience
Tuk Tuk is the local taxi in Cambodia. We would say this is probably the most exciting and thrilling taxi experience ever!The Royal University of Fine Arts has 102 years old buildings with beautiful red walls
Introduction and Q&A
After we arrived at RUFA, we first started our workshop with self-introduction and warm-up exercises to get to know all the students.
The age range of students were very big as well as the variety of the instruments. There were 3-4 composers, 2 cellists, 2 clarinetists, 1 saxophonist, many students studying Cambodian traditional instruments, and a few singers. First, each of us did a short self-introduction about our nationality, age, and the instrument we play. We then asked the students to do the same and opened it up to questions! The students were so warm, welcoming, and curious about us.
Here are some questions they asked:
📍How to practice?
📍How many hours do you practice?
📍Do you have any suggestions for musician?
We tried our best to answer the questions according to our personal experience and it turned into a very nice group sharing discussion.
Warming up the body and stretching section
Each of us shared our own exercise to warm up and stretch our body before and after we play the instrument.
Instrument Improvisation Workshop
We started the improvisation exercise by asking for a noun with an adjective. For example, we imagined black rain and tried to express with our voice or instrument!
We had lots of fun through playing the rhythm passing game combined with different voices and tapping! We found so many potential composers and conductors! Everyone was so excited and creative in rhythm and sound!
We called off the day with tasty noodles in the local bakery near RUFA. See you guys tomorrow!
Cambodia 2019
