Pinpeat Ensemble
Master Mao Phoeung is a master of the percussion instruments roneat and khim. At age 10 he began studying all the instruments in the pin peat ensemble. In 1955, his success in a national competition led to a teaching position at the School of Fine Arts. He played khim for the Khmer Rouge, who would have killed him if they knew that he had been a teacher at the Royal University of Fine Arts.
After 1980, Phoeung returned to the Royal University of Fine Arts and was widely recognized as a leading teacher of music theory. Although he broke both wrists in a bicycle accident in 2001, he can still teach. He has been a CLA Teacher since 2002 and is currently finalizing his life's work, an Encyclopedia of Khmer Music.