Commissions
As part of its mission to inspire contemporary artistic expression, CLA commissions artists to create new works that dovetail traditional and contemporary styles, bringing new life to ancient forms.
Through these new commissions, CLA supports new work that highlights the importance and relevance of traditional art forms--and the thousand-year old legacy of Khmer culture--to modern life in Cambodia and throughout the world. It also supports the development of contemporary contexts--like educational collaboration--which make new use of traditional Khmer art forms.
Prior commissions have included a hip hop/traditional Khmer fusion CD by the US-based Khmer trio SEASIA and a new shadow puppet production and nation-wide tour by the Phnom Penh-based theater company Sovanna Phum, in which traditional shadow puppet theater was used as a forum to educate about HIV/AIDS.
In its most ambitious project yet, Cambodian Living Arts has commissioned a Cambodian-American opera entitled "Where Elephants Weep," created by the Cambodian-Russian trained composer Sophy Him and librettist Catherine Filloux under the direction of theater producer and CLA Board Chair John Burt.
Where Elephants Weep, the Cambodian American rock opera commissioned by Cambodian Living Arts, will receive its world premiere in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, this November 28-December 7, 2008.
[read more]Articles
- Where Elephants Weep World Premiere November 28-December 7, 2008 in Phnom Penh
- Preview Performances of Where Elephants Weep Brings East and West Together
- Boston Globe features Lowell preview performances of Where Elephants Weep
- Betwixt Cambodia and the US: An Operatic Tale
- East Meets West in Where Elephants Weep opera
- 2 more articles...
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