Cambodia and Their Living Arts

The week dedicated to learning about Arn, Cambodian Living Arts, and Khmer Magic Music Bus helped me further understand how and why arts and music can be help heal and continue the peace of a part of the world and maybe the whole world.

Starting off with seeing and discussing The Flute Player, the documentary about Arn and his music leading up to and including Cambodian Living Arts, it gave another lense into the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian Genocide through someone’s story. I found it heartbreaking and heartwarming that music was saved Arn. It originally saved Arn’s life from the mines by playing revolution songs around Cambodia and then again later as a way to cope and learn about Cambodia through going around to talk and learn from the Grandmasters.

The documentary gave me more compassion and credit to Arn for going back to the land, Cambodia, that almost killed him and did mentally scar him for life. The importance of rekindling the talents and stories of the Grandmasters, which Arn is probably because he is so good, gives hope that tradition will continue not only in Cambodia, but across the world as through Arn’s Cambodian Living Arts project and teaching students, like us, music.

Continuing onto the B Block conversation and mini-concert from the performers and Arn, it furthered my admiration of all of them and their music whether talent or knowledge of it. By learning about their stories and listening to the music, it opened my eyes to the importance of traditional culture and how the modern world and globalization can possibly harm or help. Like Ya Rath last year, traditional music is continued to learn and develop cultures yet can be mixed or modified to be modern. During the presentation though, Arn did not seem to like the new music and where it is going due to most of it not coming from Cambodia it is.

Finally is the night performance. The performance told the full stories and shed light on how age affects something tragic like the genocide. It also opened up how music can connect farflung people which may not share much in common due to linguistic differences.

Overall, the week dedicated to diving deep into the Arn and the important groups we began taught me about importance of arts and music, peace in response to war, and why stories need to be told.