Biography
Composer Chinary Ung fuses instrumental techniques and structural principles rooted in Western classical music with an approach to rhythm and pitch that evokes Eastern traditions. Born in 1942 in Takeo, Cambodia, Ung pursued training at the University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, the Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University, where Mario Davidovsky served as one of his mentors. Among his initial compositions were the chamber pieces “Tall Wind” and “Mahori.” The seizure of power by Pol Pot in 1975 led to widespread killing and imprisonment across Cambodia; Ung remained uncertain whether his relatives had survived. He suspended his creative work and, in 1977, joined the faculty of Northern Illinois University. By 1980 he had discovered that half his family perished under the regime, whose targeting of artists raised fears for the endurance of Khmer culture. Between 1980 and 1985 Ung devoted himself to the study of Khmer musical traditions. During the decade from 1974 to 1985 his sole completed score was the solo cello piece “Khse Buon.” Returning to composition in the middle of the 1980s, he produced the orchestral score “Inner Voices,” which received the Grawemeyer Award for Musical Composition in 1986. Throughout the late 1980s and the 1990s he remained productive as both composer and academic, writing for ensembles of varied sizes while holding teaching posts at Arizona State University and the University of California, San Diego.
Albums
