Event Description

With the National Cambodian Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial, Crossing Borders Music presents Cambodian Music of Life and Healing, with music celebrating the living tradition of Cambodian arts. Under the Khmer Rouge, most Cambodian artists were killed. After, Cambodians made heroic efforts to find living artists to pass along the traditional art forms. This life-affirming performance will showcase National Cambodian Heritage Museum resident artist Punisa Pov, who was taught by genocide survivors. Crossing Borders Music will perform Spiral X (“In Memoriam”) for amplified string quartet by Cambodian-American composer Chinary Ung (b. 1942), inspired by the traditional art forms and honoring the genocide victims. The concert will conclude with an uplifting musical collaboration between Pov and the Crossing Borders Music string quartet.

The performance will take place in the Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center and is free and open to the public.

The performance is the second in Crossing Borders Music’s six-concert series “Choosing Life and Freedom,” featuring music by composers who responded to terrible tragedies with music affirming life and to oppression with music affirming freedom. The program is a part of Inherit Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Alliance’s citywide, intercultural festival of art, ideas, and performance.