Program: 1999 Khmer New Year’s Celebration
DistributorDistributed by
Angkor Dance Troupe
Date1999 April 3
MediumPaper
ClassificationsInformation Artifacts
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.12.7
DescriptionProgram for Khmer New Year Celebration, 1999, organized by the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island.
This event was a required public presentation of the Year 1 Southern New England Apprenticeship Program team in Cambodian classical and mohory music with teaching artist Khandarith Hay and apprentice Chamrouen Buth.
NotesSubject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities, and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.This event was a required public presentation of the Year 1 Southern New England Apprenticeship Program team in Cambodian classical and mohory music with teaching artist Khandarith Hay and apprentice Chamrouen Buth.
Subject Note for Year 1 (1998-1999) of Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program: One of the few Cambodian classical singers in the United States, Khandarith Hay learned from his brother-in-law Sam Ang Sam. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Connecticut and Rhode Island Cambodians built both dance and accompanying music ensembles through cultivation of community networks and young talent. Khandarith and his wife, Somaly Hay, were leaders in this, along with instrumentalist Song Heng from Providence, Rhode Island. They were eager to involve Rhode Island resident Chamroeun Buth, who was a wedding singer, in studying with Khandarith to learn the classical style.
Biographical Note: Khandarith Hay came to the United States in the early 1980s after surviving the Khmer Rouge genocide. One of the few Cambodian classical singers in the U.S. at the time, Khandarith learned classical and popular song forms such as mohory from his brother-in-law Sam Ang Sam. Along with his wife, classical court dancer Somaly Hay, he was involved in building both both dance and accompanying music ensembles in Connecticut and Rhode Island through cultivation of community networks and young talent, along with instrumentalist Song Heng from Providence, Rhode Island. Khandarith taught Rhode Island resident Chamroeun Buth, who is a wedding singer, to learn the classical style of Cambodian music. Khandarith and a group of musicians including Somaly were recorded in the WNPR studio for CCHAP’s “Sounds Like Home” CD in 1998. Khandarith moved back to Cambodia in 2016.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
John Monteiro
2005 June 19
