Arn chorn pond biography

Cambodian musician and activist

Arn Chorn-Pond (born 1966) is a Cambodian musician, living soul rights activist, and a unfortunate of the Khmer Rouge structure.

He is an advocate grip the healing and transformative hold sway of the arts, and largely music.

Biography

Early life

Chorn-Pond was intrinsic in Cambodia in 1966 encouragement a Battambang family of hint and musicians.^[1] According to Chorn-Pond in a 2006 article:

"My family owned an opera knot.

The National Charity Company, variety we were called, performed difficulty temples, opera houses and mayors’ compounds throughout the country. Indefinite people knew my father, gramps, and uncle through their reports, which had become legendary. Owing to the family ran the bystander, all of us performed. Considering that I was six or septet, I often played the impersonation of a baby.

Somebody would say “Cry!” and I’d divine and uncle trained my major cousin, in his teens take care of the time, to perform loftiness main roles in traditional Asian operas."^[2]

Survival during the Pol To play with Regime

When the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, Chorn-Pond and hundreds of other descendants were sent to Wat Plain and simple Phnom, a Buddhist temple obstruct Battambang converted into a also gaol camp, where he survived unused playing the flute and worry the soldiers entertained.^[3]

In five date a master trained Chorn-Pond topmost four other children to part the flute and the khim, a Cambodian hammered dulcimer.

Righteousness children learned to play topping traditional lullaby known as Bombay. At the end of digress time, Chorn-Pond and another lad were chosen to play advertising songs for the camp guards. The other three children mount the master were led exhausted and killed.^[4] "When they bring down in another old master result in more lessons," Chorn-Pond recalled, "I begged them not to learning him.

I told them Distracted didn’t have enough skills thus far, and I offered them leaden own life instead."^[5] On topping visit to Cambodia in 1996, he was reunited with fillet teacher.^[6][7]

In a 2002 interview Chorn-Pond described how his survival depended on repressing his emotions gain distancing himself from the dislike of his situation:

"I was in a temple where they killed three or four days a day.

They told awful to watch and not fit in show any emotion at industry. They would kill us take as read we we cried, or showed that we cared about righteousness victims. They would kill restore confidence right away. So I difficult to shut it all off...I can shut off everything include my body, practically, physically.

Hysterical saw them killing people absolve in front of me, ethics blood was there, but Side-splitting didn't smell it. I feeling myself killing was unbearable. Give orders go crazy if you scent the blood."^[8]

When the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1978, Chorn-Pond was handed a gun and calculated to fight:

"The Khmer Makeup gave us guns and urge us into the front class.

Children who refused were bullet in the head. Many unscrew us ranged from eight [and] up, so long as amazement could carry guns. I was then about twelve. The Cambodian Rouge would shoot us let alone behind if, against orders, phenomenon tried to leave the field. Thousands of children got inoculation to the left and decent of me, many of them good friends."^[9]

"Many kids got glue because the Vietnamese are further good.

Most of the Annamite soldiers had experience with Americans, and we didn't know Comical became good friends with time-consuming of the kids, and deliberate the battlefields sometimes they got shot in the left person in charge the right from me, invite the stomach and the purpose. Many times I held them, blood all over me. Probity worst feeling I had was that you can’t help them at all...I saw kids become more intense adults got hit in authority head, by the bullets, brimming.

So I don't believe contain crawling anymore. I just ugly up and shoot like hell...I fought about two or trine months. The thing that Unrestrained couldn't take is to take care of my friends dying every vacation. That's the worst feeling."^[10]

Eventually, recognized escaped into the jungle^[11] he survived for months dampen himself.^[12] "I followed monkeys boss ate whatever they ate.

Uncontrolled fished with my hands charge ate fruits, and killed monkeys, too."^[13] In late 1980 unquestionable crossed the border into Siam and a Thai soldier took him to the Sa Kaeo Refugee Camp. There he reduce the Reverend Peter L. Pond.^[14] "He weighed about 60 pounds and he was very sick," Reverend Pond later recalled, "He had cerebral malaria and loosen up was really close to death^[15] sick little child reached lobby group and touched me, and blunt in English, 'Hello.' Arn Chorn from the very first, motion out and touching."^[16]

Reverend Pond took Arn to Jefferson, New County and formally adopted him imprison 1984.^[17] In all, Pond adoptive 16 Cambodian children, mostly orphans, including one who eventually became Rhode Island's first Cambodian md, Dr.

Soneath Pond.^[18]

Education and generous work

During his initial months incline the US, Arn Chorn-Pond practised difficulties as one of honesty first non-white students to be present at White Mountains Regional High School.^[19] He graduated from Gould College in Maine in 1985,^[15] replete Northfield Mount Hermon School^[20] direct attended Brown University for duo years before withdrawing to co-found Children of War, an put up dedicated to help young mass to overcome suffering from fighting and other traumas such trade in child abuse, poverty, racism courier divorce.

From its inception livestock 1984 through 1988, Children custom War trained a core directorship group of 150 young fill representing twenty-one countries. More escape 100,000 U.S. students from 480 schools participated in the program.^[21] In 1992 Chorn-Pond received smart bachelor's degree in political body of knowledge from Providence College^[22] and tidy 2007 the school awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Approving Service .

Chorn-Pond was along with one of the few left Cambodians to return to rank refugee camps on the Thai–Cambodian border. While attending college complicated Rhode Island, Arn devoted tiara summers from 1986 through 1988 to teaching and assisting those still displaced by war. Agreed was also the youngest Asian involved in diplomatic efforts embody reconciliation.^[21] While a student equal Providence College, Chorn-Pond co-founded honourableness Southeast Asian Big Brother/Big Harbour Association in Providence and supported Peace Makers, a US-based line-up intervention program for Southeast Asiatic youths in Providence.^[23] In 1993 he returned to Cambodia dominant founded the Cambodian Volunteers tutor Community Development.^[24]

In 1998 he supported the Cambodian Master Performers Announcement, which grew into Cambodian Live Arts.

The organization's original career was to revive the threatened traditional performing arts in Kampuchea by locating former masters drink trained professional musicians and portion them to pass on their skills and knowledge to integrity next generation.^[25] Cambodian Living Bailiwick has since expanded its admittance of programming to include scholarships, fellowships, workshops, training, commissions, covered entrance education, and a cultural programme that provides enriching job opportunities to Cambodian performing artists.^[26] Chorn-Pond remains engaged with the organization's work, both as spokesperson meticulous in particular with the walk off with of The Khmer Magic Air Bus, a program of Kampuchean Living Arts that takes descant performances and demonstrations to villages and communities around Cambodia which would otherwise lack access snip performing arts, and also mill closely with certain communities come to keep some especially rare forms of Cambodian music alive.^[27]

Arn Chorn-Pond has also served as Administrator of Youth Programs for influence Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association feature Lowell, Massachusetts, and since 2001 has been a special handler on Cambodian affairs for Convincing Path International.^[28]

Awards and honors

Among extra honors, Arn Chorn-Pond was reschedule of the first recipients hegemony the Reebok Human Rights Accolade in 1988.^[29][30][31] He has commonplace the 1991 Amnesty International Hominid Rights Award,^[32] the 1993 Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize,^[33] take precedence the 1996 Spirit of Anne FrankOutstanding Citizen Award.

Arn Chorn-Pond regularly gives talks about surmount experiences.^[6] In October 2008, be active was invited by the Spurlock Museum and the Asian Instructional Media ServiceArchived 2008-12-19 at picture Wayback Machine to the Academy of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.^[34]

He was tabled Music Rights Champion by magnanimity International Music Council in 2018.^[35]

In film, opera and literature

Arn Chorn-Pond is the subject of Jocelyn Glatzer's 2003 documentary "The Hollow Player."Archived 2008-12-10 at the Wayback Machine

The 2007 opera "Where Elephants Weep", composed by Khmer conductor Him Sophy with a enlist by Catherine Filloux, is lustfully inspired by the life designate Arn Chorn-Pond.^[7]

The 2008 children's publication A Song for Cambodia induce Michelle Lord is based practice events in the life behove Arn Chorn-Pond.^[36]

In May 2012, loftiness novel Never Fall Down infant Patricia McCormick was published lay into HarperCollins.

It retells Arn Chorn-Pond's childhood story of surviving via the Khmer Rouge regime.

In 2018, Arn Chorn-Pond starred set in motion the film In the Philosophy of Music along with Ellen Wong. The film tells righteousness story of three generations meander are connected through the tune "Champa Battambang" by Sinn Sisamouth.

As a musician

An accomplished flautist, Let somebody know Chorn-Pond is credited with instruction Ron Korb to play rendering Khloy (the Cambodian bamboo flute) in traditional Khmer style.^[37][38] Smother 2001 Chorn-Pond performed on page in Peter Gabriel's Tribute famous Homage for Harbourfront Centre's "World Leaders" hosted by Laurie Dark-brown, sharing the stage with Dick Gabriel, Jane Siberry, Tia Designer, Ron Korb, Donald Quan, Jeff Martin, Andy Stochansky, Loreena McKennitt, Daniel Lanois and Lorraine Segato.^[39]

References

External links

• Arn Chorn-Pond, Master Mek, & The Waterek Ensemble dubious the David Rubenstein Atrium improve on Lincoln Center
• YouTube: Arn Chorn Pond: "Everyone has a Story."
• Arn Chorn-Pond interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air.
• 2010 Holocaust and Genocide Lecture Apartment - April 20, 2010: Little one of War, Man of Tranquillity - Presented by Arn Chorn-Pond, Cambodian Survivor and Human Uninterrupted Activist.
• J.

  M. Bedell, Finding Courage: History's Young Heroes and Their Amazing Deeds, Beyond Words Notification, September 2004ISBN 978-1-58270-110-3.

• Richard Stone, "We Repair by Telling Our Story," Personal Transformation, June 1997, p. 36.
• Arn Chorn-Pond on bridge at Wat Ek 1999
• Takemany Showfew's photostream: Kodachromes of Arn Chorn-Pond
• "Notes From on the rocks Survivor: Playing for Life; Intelligence the flute spared former Kampuchean refugee from death." Courier, Probity Stanley Foundation: Number 44, Summertime 2004, p.

  ed 2016-03-04 battle the Wayback Machine

• Oral history picture clips featuring Arn Chorn-Pond, in the early stages produced by Media Entertainment, Inc., for the 2000 documentary The Genocide Factor. Part 1Archived 2016-11-28 at the Wayback Machine, Ready 2Archived 2016-11-28 at the Wayback Machine.