It must have been 2005 or 2006 – only a few years after his first visit to Cambodia since the late 1960s – when Chinary showed me black-and-white photographs from a beautifully bound book on the rich architectural and cultural legacy of the Khmer Empire. There was Angkor Wat, of course, constructed of sandstone blocks somehow without mortar in the 12th century yet still standing. He indicated the importance of the hand positions on the dancers depicted on bas-relief murals, providing a visual record for future generations to emulate. He then introduced me to Neak Pean, the complex of healing pools organized around a central pool with a man-made island temple in the middle, encircled by two Nāga, those fearsome, multiheaded, intertwined dragons.

Chinary’s enthusiasm for these topics was as interesting and engaging as the objects themselves, and it seems to have only intensified over time. He has an unusual capacity for long-term focus, for sustained engagement. Neak Pean and Nāga have been critical points of reference for several of Chinary’s recent compositions, and yet these creative encounters never seem to exhaust the capacity for these elements to inspire him further.

Back in the mid-90s I used to drop in on Chinary’s office hours, then in the bunker-like Mandeville Building at UC San Diego. His office was windowless, yet accommodating, with a leather couch and numerous Southeast Asian instruments. Our conversations were philosophical, rarely oriented toward specific musical questions. This seems a common theme among his former students, but it was clear that composition was to be understood as something broader than one documents on a score page. The questions, ideas, histories, and aspirations of the composer need to be nurtured and understood for that person’s work to make a sustained and meaningful artistic project.

Chinary’s long commitment to the Cambodian cultural legacy is a remarkable example for other artists in demonstrating that one’s interaction with … let’s call them topics of inspiration … can be iterative, open-ended, and probing rather than encyclopedic and finite. We can continue to mine new terrain and learn new dimensions even from territory that we believe to be familiar. Perhaps because we change, our perspectives shift over time. Chinary has always prepared himself to respond to these issues with a singular and powerful creative vision.

With gratitude for our decades of friendship,
- Adam Greene, San Diego

I’m not sure I can adequately express my admiration, respect, and affection for Chinary Ung in words. He has been a devoted teacher, mentor, friend, and father figure to me for so many years - we have worked together in so many ways and shared countless experiences. He is a composer of incredible integrity and has a voice that is truly unique and deeply moving - his musical mind is unsurpassed. He is a truly inspiring and invested teacher and has guided me always to reach my fullest potential and have my own voice in music. He is an even more devoted and caring friend and s someone who is forever working to bring about good in the world. Chinary has been there for me always with support, kindness and concern no matter what turns life has taken. I consider it one of the great honors of my life to have been a part of his, both musically and personally all these years. I’ve learned so many valuable things from Chinary: perfect imperfection, the deep sound that runs through the earth itself, giving yourself the space to rest and feel things instead of forcing creative work, and of course, don’t be dumb! We have shared immense joys, terrible losses, and reveled in the beauty of so many wondrous things along the way. I simply cannot imagine my life without Chinary and his family - I love them all and would not be who I am today without them. Happiest of Birthdays to you, dear Chinary! I look forward to many more adventures and times together during our continuing laps around the sun!
~Sean Heim

In discussing Bartok and orchestration, Chinary suggested taking a Bartok orchestral score and arranging it for solo flute…probably both the craziest and most important suggestion in my composition studies–and yes, I did it, and made my students do it, too! His wit and wisdom in these and countless other moments are some of my most cherished memories as a student. I am eternally grateful to you for your mentorship and friendship.
~Demetrius Spaneas

Happy Birthday. You’re still a great teacher. In my first lesson you showed me a photograph of a stork flying over its slightly distorted mirror reflection off the water beneath it and you explained that this is what you are doing as a teacher and something in me melted. I was just about a month out of the wheelchair that confined me for over a year. I had just started walking again. Looking back, I like to think this moment was when my soul finally shook itself awake again.
-Sean Griffin

Happy 80th Birthday, Chinary!

What a marvelous milestone to celebrate! I’ve told this to you many times before, but there is no single artist who had a larger impact on my life, and I am forever grateful for you. I remember when a friend at Eastman urged me to listen to Spirals (Aequalis performing), and my mind was blown. I had never heard music that spoke to my sensibilities so profoundly and affirmed an authentic Asian identity and voice within the western tradition of music I had studied so diligently. I probably listened to that recording 1,000 times, used it in my teaching consequently, and of course, sought out other works of yours. I will always remember performing Child Song knowing that you and Susan were in the audience. Truly, what a thrill it was to finally meet you in person. There is the old saying, “don’t meet your heroes”, but in this case, meeting you only elevated my admiration. Thank you for all you are doing for our field as a composer, but perhaps even most importantly as a citizen. Your support for your peers and students is renowned, and I truly hope we all learn to be so kind and generous.
Much love,
Jennie Oh Brown

Chinary is a composer of great imagination and expression, as well as a deeply admirable human being. His friendship, support and advice meant a great deal to me in the early stages of my career as a composer and professor. Chinary’s take on the infamously ugly politics of academia was that he learned to play the game in order to help others, rather than for selfish ends. That stuck with me.

During the 90’s I accepted Chinary’s invitation to speak to his ASU students about my music. Afterward, he treated me with great generosity, inviting me to his home, preparing Cambodian food and introducing me to Susan and their daughters. Following dinner, we spent a charmed hour chatting in the Ungs’ backyard hot tub overlooking the desert, under the stars.
~David Vayo, Bloomington, Illinois

Chinary introduced me to the melodies Lao Liu Ban, or “Old Six Beats” (and by extension “Old Eight Beats”). In addition, I still have a cherished hi-resolution scan of one of Chinary’s notated KHEK-MON examples, complete with three levels of rhythmic elaborations of increasing intricacy. These conversations bloomed out of musical concerns dealing with melodic ornamentation, rhythmic elaboration, and of how to write a really good musical line. Chinary advised on these matters, and many more. Importantly, when I once alluded to other-than-musical distractions during a conversation, Chinary offered a perfectly musical reflection (and, as I took it, advice): “I can change, I can adapt.” I reflect on these words (in Chinary’s inimitable voice, of course) as a part of my composing, and as a guide to daily life, too! I am delighted and grateful to share them here, for Chinary’s 80th Birthday. Thank you Chinary!
~Jon Forshee, Colorado Springs

I have so many great memories about time with Chinary that I don’t know where to begin! I remember him being outspoken against authoritarian behaviors in academia, how kind he was to make a celebratory feast fit for royalty after I completed a big recording project, his stories of playing poker when he was a student in New York with Jean-Claude Duvalier (aka ‘Baby Doc’, President of Haiti), and so many others. What always sticks with me is how Chinary advised me that I am (and we all are) on a spiritual journey; some will try to derail that journey, and while we guard against that, we just do our best to stay on the path. More than anyone I know, Chinary gives selflessly of his time, energy, and gifts to refugees, students, spiritual seekers, and anyone lucky enough to come into his light.

There are many wonderful memories from my time studying in Chinary’s classes as well as our one-to-one meetings. I never know what might happen in our discussions but I know that it is going to be extraordinary in the best kinds of ways! His classes are always full of incredible, imaginative imagery and metaphors. Time travel and space frequently come up and one day our discussions can have metaphors of humans in galaxies far away and on another day, we are relating musical ideas to being a small bird looking down on a large forests below us. I learn so much from our discussions and from watching his lead his classes. His insights are unique and profound and I always look forward to hearing him speak. He has had such an immensely positive impact on my life and my classmate’s lives - our school is so fortunate to have a faculty and mentor figure in Chinary. Wishing you a wonderful 80th birthday and many more happy and healthy returns!!!
with gratitude always,
-Janet Sit


It is not every day that one is met with someone who can look at the world through different lenses. It is a privilege and honor to know Chinary Ung the master of story telling through music and word. As I look back on my memories of Chinary, I am met with memories of him performing Qi Gong and mischief. His imagining and pondering of parallel universes and alternate realities fueled many laugh-filled conversations. Wondering if we were memories of people long gone and past, or a figment of someone’s imagination.
Happy Birthday Chinary Ung!!! You have done well. Many wishes and blessings for your birthday!!!
With greatest respect,
Abby Christian


Where does one start?

I met Dr Ung when I was fourteen, in Cambodia, and our singular meeting changed my life. He is the reason I moved to the United States, the reason I went into composition, and the reason I have decided to protect what I cherish the most: my love for music, my joy of sharing it, and the pride I have in my roots.

What makes it hard to describe Dr Ung’s legacy is what makes him singular in our lifetime: he is a true teacher. I speak for many of us, students and colleagues, in saying that he guides with gentle advice and a moral compass that is rarefied of our generation. Dr Ung often uses allegories and metaphors to express his lessons, and for good cause: they transcend racial, generational, national and cultural differences, to bring us to our inner voice. He knows that he cannot dictate what our voice is, only we know best. There was never right and wrong, good and bad sounds for Dr Ung. It was always what you wanted to sound as, and, the acceptance towards one self. Samago writes in Blindness (1995): “Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.”

As a fellow Khmer composer, my relationship to Dr Ung is unique. Fifty-years apart, our journey has a lot of similarities: we come from the same country, were educated in some of the best music programs in the world, and are both classically trained composers. We also share the same genocidal trauma which has hit our families, and bear the consequences of displacement. We look to the past and at the same time, to the future: how to integrate what is no longer here with what remains but is soon to fade. More than ten years after we met, it was natural for me to gravitate towards Dr Ung’s early and most recent works in my Masters’ dissertation, and to grapple with the fear, grief, and ultimately, peace, in how to negotiate my Khmer identity in Western art music.

I simply wouldn’t be where I am today if it was not for his groundbreaking career, a career supported by unwavering love and support of Susan, and daughters Kalean and Sonika. Thank you for paving the way for our next generation of Khmer artists, and for acting as a translator with my parents who did not know so much of guiding their daughter into a career in music. You have become a second father to me, and family to mine.

I think I was always meant to meet and that our fates were destined to cross. Dr Ung, I don’t think there are enough words in the different languages we speak to say thank you. And, maybe, that’s why I’ll always try to write no matter how hard it is. I’ll try to remember your advice: I will look to the horizon and keep my gaze steady, no matter how strong the sea may be.

Thank you, លោកគ្រូ
⁃ Bosba Panh

Dear Chinary

It has been a joy to have known you since our days at Columbia, to have performed and programmed your amazing music, and to have called it to the attention of many of my students in my workshops and classes at Juilliard. The great reward for me as a teacher is that they loved getting to know it, and some of them (especially violists and cellists) have programmed it. We cannot thank you enough for all the beauties and surprises that you have given us, all with your impeccable technique. You are a real inspiration!
Joel Sachs

Chinary is one of the most profound human beings I have encountered. I was truly blessed to have shared many moments with him during my studies at UCSD and to have taken many courses with him. His wisdom is extraordinary, he was the only professor at UCSD who would welcome, and encourage, talking about spirituality. He can talk to you about the deepest aspects of existence, saying things that will take you years to understand. But he also understands that life cannot be taken too seriously, that there is a simplicity about it that can only be experienced with a good laugh. In the most serious moments of life, perhaps laughter is our best ally.

I could mention two things that Chinary taught me. First, the importance of dreams, because dreams are a window into the unconscious. One time, in his office, we start talking about dreams and he pulls up this big, beautiful, limited edition of Carl Jung’s Red Book. A facsimile of the original drawings and paintings of Jung in full color. We looked at different pages without talking and that was the class for that day. Years later, I bought my own book and started reading the writings of Jung. He knew at that moment, this book would be important for me in the future.

Regarding dreams, he also said one time, when you have an unsolvable problem in a composition, just think about it before you go to bed, and see what happens in the morning, your unconscious will keep working on it and it will find a solution, a solution that does not come from the rational mind.

The second thing he taught me was about the idea of perfection. Once he gave me this advice: when you are composing a piece, if you reach a moment when the piece is at its 80-90% leave it there. Don’t go for the 100%, because by trying to achieve that, you will end up destroying it. Once you arrive at the 80-90% mark, that’s it, the work is finished. Perfection is not attainable. Now that I am a professor, I give this very same advice to my students.

Thank you Chinary for your light.
Xavier Beteta

During the summer of 2014, I first met Dr. Ung at a music festival in Bangkok where “Singing Inside Aura for Viola and Orchestra” was performed. I was mesmerized by the piece and I could only hope to have an opportunity to study with him one day. Six months later, I got a research grant to study his masterpiece for orchestra, “Inner Voices.”

During my research in San Diego, Dr. Ung was teaching me by adopting an old Asian method. Like many traditional-music masters had done with their disciples, he kindly invited me to stay in his lovely home with Susan and the cats. From the first moment, conversations about music and life never stopped, and the best lessons often happened naturally over meals, during hikes in Rose Canyon, or during train rides to and from Los Angeles. No music scores needed, only pure wisdom.

Little I knew that my research on his “Inner Voices” was more for him to guide me to search for my own “inner voices”, and to “compose from within while observing the outer world.” His analogy of a line running through a circle represents a division between Eastern and Western worlds. The solid line later becomes a dotted line that let the two worlds co-exist seamlessly. Eventually, the circle and the dotted line fades to nothingness, no more line, no more circle. This Buddhism philosophy of impermanence, Anicca, is not only found in his music, but also reflected in his selflessness and generosity.

Dr. Ung, I can never thank you enough for your kindness and everything you have taught me.

Happy 80th Birthday!!
Pang Vongtaradon

I am so very lucky and grateful to have been able to sing in a number of Chinary’s works. AURA, in particular, conjures up such chill-inducing joyful MAGIC for me, truly a peak experience in my musical life!!!!

And shifting from the profound to the silly, (always close together when hanging with Chinary and Susan!), I am reminded of just one of my favorite Chinary stories, which took place during the Southwest Chamber Music tour to Cambodia and Vietnam. While exploring one of the spectacular temples outside of Siem Reap, Chinary escorted a number of us gals, who needed to make a pit stop, to the women’s restroom, and proceeded to explain to the attendant that we were all his WIVES, and should therefore pay a reduced fee! From then on we all referred to ourselves as “Wife # (fill-in-the-blank)” of course!
Happiest Birthday to you Chinary!!!!
Gratefully,
Elissa Johnston

Chinary, are you really 80? Your youthful spirit and energy belie this nice round number. Our long journey together has its roots in a chance elevator encounter you had around 1964, although I didn’t become part of that tree until about 12 years later. The spiritual depth of your music found its way into my bones on the first hearing of Khse Buon, and your “under the banyan tree” approach to discourse and conversation is always an inspiration. Well, enough of that– Happy birthday!
-Ralph Samuelson

Mentor, supporter most importantly friend for the past 20 years, Chinary is the most sincere, humanistic, spiritual, intelligent, and creative persons I have ever been honored to meet. I was very blessed two decades ago when he accepted my modest invitation to what was then an earlier version of the New Music Miami Festival. His interactions with the students, my colleagues, the audiences, and the performers at that event in which he brought his unique internationally informed perspective was immensely illuminating and we have been very close friends ever since.

Chinary, to say that I am so grateful for your friendship is an understatement. I wish you a great 80th birthday celebration and many, many more years of health and continued exceptional creative work. Looking forward to seeing you in the spring!
Orlando Jacinto Garcia

Chinary is not only my composition teacher and mentor, he is also a master and teacher of life. His wisdom, humor and forever-curious aura have inspired and touched many composers, musicians and artists all over the world of different generations and backgrounds, and I am in return incredibly grateful and indebted to his teaching and guidance. Here are some quotes / phrases that have served as good reminders and saved me in times of doubt and struggle:

“There is nothing to be anxious about, train yourself to be fearless.”
“You have to compose yourself before composing.”
“When in doubt in composition, write a drone.”
“In order to break a line, you need to have a line”

On the importance of having “a keen observation” as a composer
“People are actually more forgiving than you think they are.”
“Only the mentor can commit a crime, not the student.”
“Don’t go for perfection. It is the imperfection that creates perfection.”
“Have self-compassion”
“When in doubt, observe nature.” / “You can always find answers in nature.”


Honorable mentions / jokes:
“I love Focus (Seminar) because we’re out of focus most of the time *signature laugh* (then suddenly becomes serious) No, this is just a joke, or is it?” On possible definitions of drone: “a crazy friend complaining at you all the time, he is droning all the time”
(Working on an assignment from the Orchestration Graduate Seminar) “…just bassoon it all the way”
Wishing Chinary many more years of good health, joy and exuberance - happy 80th birthday, Chinary!
– Pauline Ng (current UCSD Ph.D. in Composition student)

Chinary once asked me: “What does an octave mean to you?” It was typical of Chinary. I knew it was more of a philosophical question than a practical one, and that he might not be expecting my answer, but I wanted to find a reply. The question has been lingering in my mind for a long time, and after more than a decade, I still wonder if octaves mean something other than pitches to me. It is characteristic of Chinary to give us this kind of broad, thoughtful, question. Often because he is also searching for the answer but sometimes he is just making a joke. I like to relate his queries to music and philosophy, and cherish the questions for a while. I think I am getting a little closer to the meaning of an octave, but I am still working on it. You are the teacher, mentor, and philosopher in my life, Chinary. Happy 80th Birthday!
-Yumiko Morita, Composer, Faculty at Chapman University

I was very grateful to have the chance to meet Chinary in a talk, and finally studied with him privately. At that time, I was a composition student who completely lost the direction. I felt the study of composition has no connection with my personal life, since the things I wrote were meaningless. I was like a sinking boat in the ocean. Chinary was the life jacket that savd me from the disaster. He encouraged and guided me from writing “single melodies,” from expanding the horizontal lines like opening a fan, and eventually helped me to find my own inner voices.

Composition is not the only thing I learned from Chinary. He also guided me how to talk, how to write, how to respond, how to manage things and the relationship with people, and now the relationship with my students. Chinary, who has strong mind with a soft heart, is a mentor, a friend, and a kind leader to me. He delivers the most precious things that humans can give to another: wisdom and compassion. As he once said “compassion is the most powerful force in the universe.”
Chinary, Happy 80th Birthdady!
⁃ Chih-Chen Wei, Composer, Faculty at Chapman University

What always comes to mind for me from my time studying with Chinary at UCSD was how he treats composition as an extension of the person instead of as some isolated thing that composers make. His approach is very personalized, and it always surprised me to see how different he was as a teacher with other students, depending on their needs.

So many composition teachers I have worked with simply adjudicate your work from the lens of their aesthetic or technical preferences. Chinary, on the other hand, has a unique talent for seeing the music through the eyes of the student. So while he certainly provides technical instruction when needed, when that’s not the case his focus moves onto intent and helping the student realize their creative vision.

Some of my favorite lessons with Chinary were sessions where we would sit at the campus cafe, talk about a work in progress, and end up creating elaborate metaphors for the musical project at hand. It was such a refreshing approach, because we were delving into the “why” instead of the “how.”

Happy birthday, Chinary!
⁃ Aaron Gervais, composer

I have many stories about Chinary as my professor, mentor and friend. I was in his graduate seminar in the early 2000’s while at UCSD. We are discussing Pacific Rim music and Chou wen-Chung’s articles on “confluence” in anticipation of his visit to our campus. Chinary had assigned our final project and I decided that I would like to write a paper on the confluence of vocal techniques in chamber works by composers who embrace multiculturalism in their music. I was so excited about my idea! I spoke to Chinary after class to discuss my proposed topic and his response was, “Do you think it is a good idea?”.....I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “I don’t know….”. I went home and told my husband that I was no longer sure about my grand idea for my paper and moped around for a couple of days. After much contemplation, I decided to just go for it, and I wrote the paper and turned it in - well, I got an A!!!! It was a good idea!

My next very memorable moment was traveling with Chinary on a tour bus through Bangkok in 2008. I told him that I was incredibly inspired by Kathleen Roland’s recording of his Still Life After Death and that I wanted to study and perform it. Chinary advised that I might want to wait for the right time, as my mother had just died and that I might get too emotionally attached to the work. I took his advice and I waited another 8 years; I knew in 2016 that I was finally ready to do the piece and that I could communicate the story from a giving point of view as opposed to an inward and self-consuming perspective. The project was a collaboration with the multifaceted and talented artist Timur Bekbosonov and acclaimed filmmaker Sandra Powers with the players of Brightwork newmusic. I consider our film to be one of the highlights of my career. I am thankful to Chinary for his blessing to do an avant-garde film adaptation of his piece, the work has had a profound effect on my artistic life and I continue to channel this spiritual energy in all that I do as a singer. Thank you Chinary!
Stacey Fraser, soprano

The Sound of Spirit:
Humility, Heart-felt Sonorousness and Inner Voice

I first met Chinary Ung in Art Park, Sapporo in Japan at the 1990 Pacific Composers Conference at The Pacific Music Festival. He cut an impressive figure--a person of presence with a sharp perceptive creative intelligence, and flanked by an intense group of composers who seemed to share some artistic connection. I found out later that Chen Yi, Zhou Long and Chinary had all studied together with Chou Wen-Chung in New York--with whom they all shared a life long friendship. I was in awe; I had just come from New Zealand and was recovering from my study in Britain, and felt lost creatively.

I remember my friend Sean Heim, years later, telling me he learnt more from Chinary over a bowl of noodles (usually delicious) than within the confines of a classroom. So it was with me also; his humility, heart-felt connection to people and culture, and still inner voice still resonate with me today in Sydney, Australia where I have now settled as an immigrant composer.

In Sapporo I was surprised that whilst I was sitting outside on the grass, Chinary whilst serving the needs of his then young family (trying to stop his two toddler girls from escaping--I think one is now a psychologist and the other a tenured faculty member at CALARTS), came over and sat down next to me. I did not feel very worthwhile, but he still placed value on me even as a person. I was moved by the humility of this gesture. He taught me to observe and be aware of the noise of society imperatives, and then to move past that and listen to the quiet inner voice, which resonates with my Judeo-Christian belief of the still voice speaking to our spirit after the calamity of the thundering storm. I was then suddenly struck by the immense and subtle overpowering beauty of his music--it glowed with colouristically life, rich interlacing colours and strength, and connected at a heart level.

Later, I had the privelge of inviting Chinary and his wife, Susan Ung, to the Auorora Festival 2008 as our resident composer and performing artist. Again, it was in serving that I learnt through being his driver to events around Sydney. In fact his imparted creative knowledge was so stimulating I forgot where I was drving--even missing one venue in a creative whir of excitement (I now have an iPhone, yes an electronic suggestion did come from the back seat) and going straight past a speed camera rapidly (which also proved expensive). Again Chinary's wisdom enriched my students at the festival and his piece Aura almost moved us to tears. This was an experience beyond sound. It is interesting that it is in humility and caring for others, that spiritual revelation occurs and uplifts people, including us.

I learnt many things from him: humility is important and allows you to see others; knowing the materiality of your own own sounds within your scores is actually a quiet understated gesture; that sound is actually a living presence of our hearts that reflects our place in the Asia-Pacific; and that these changing living sounds of nuanced colours actually express the moving of spirit and are actually a presence which is beyond music and suggests heaven.
Thank you Chinary. I love you dearly. Your music and love will reverberate well beyond these birthday celebrations.
Bruce Crossman
Sydney, 21st October 2022

The first time I met Chinary was when he was a guest composer at Chapman University when Del Sol quartet presented his Spiral X and from that experience, I knew he was someone special, I was completely blown away by his musical imagination and poignant storytelling. When composing my senior thesis for chamber orchestra, he had me imagine my french horn line as a rainbow dragon, flying above and through the orchestra and it beautifully helped with my composing process. He also told me that whenever I was in doubt of what to write next, write a drone. He had me imagine and do things (like record myself hit pans with chopsticks in my kitchen) that opened up new pathways of thought and creation and is a huge reason I felt inspired to deeper explore music from throughout the world. My fondest memory with Chinary was seriously every day at the Nirmita Composers Institute in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Particular highlights were admiring the stupas and the temples of Angkor Wat with him and being blown away he was able to bring the carvings and words on the walls to life. Chinary is the closest thing to a real life Yoda to me! I wish to be that funny brilliant and strong at 80! He inspired me to continue to be weird, curious, authentic to oneself and live life with joy and strength. I am so incredibly grateful and indebted to his guidance and mentorship.


Thank you so much.
Happy Birthday, Chinary! Best wishes and health to you! To many more years! Cannot wait to hear more of your music.
⁃ Michael J Fleming

Chinary is a real mentor and a role model of my life. During those years when I was working with Chinary at UCSD, we had a lot of conversations on many things: creativity, culture, philosophy, in addition to compositional perspectives. Chinary told stories, kept asking questions, provided various analogies that pushed me to think about the level of depth where I never thought to reach before. He is profound, humble, supportive, compassionate, humorous, but also serious. He talked a lot about nature and humanity, and his spirit is divine. I keep finding inspiration and enlightenment each time I look back at my notes taken during meetings with him. I'm sharing some of those great ones below:

On Creativity:
★ "Get closer to how you feel, what you perceive. Go beyond yourself and enter deeper into your creative mind."
★ "Look for your own musical fingerprints. Not just show, see how close you get into it, and look for some more - what to go further."
★ "Keep the record of what you have done - including the sketches, aesthetics, techniques, dates, process, and so on-, what you haven't done, and what can be extended."
★ "Look into something behind."
★ "Work harder in dreaming."
★ "Find your musical impulse = a seed that need good soil/water/sun and can develop (into structure)
★ "Do not 80-100% follow the teacher. You need to digest, and sometimes even give up what your teacher said."
★ "Super-intelligence: 20% get proper proportion, and then 80% craft.

On Culture and Spirituality:
★ "Varése said: Culture is a group of bad habits."
★ "Stretch your own spirituality."
★ "When you go deeper, there's no east and west."
★ "What is your role in your culture and tradition? You can learn the power and essence from your culture, but it's better alone, and leave it alone."
★ "Art should be total libration and have no wall, as if lights can come from any door or window."
★ "There are 3 levels to get into the spirituality, from the surface to the deeper inside: your condition, the culture, and the universe shared within humanity."

Happy 80th and many more to Chinary! With my deepest respects and wishes,
Chen-Hui Jen, Composer
Ph.D. of University of California, San Diego - Class of 2012
November 26, 2022

In Search of Lost Time Spent with Chinary Ung…

Northern Illinois University’s Music Department in the 1970s was an exciting place to study. The Vermeer Quartet was in residence, as was the Black Earth Percussion Quartet. The department’s World Music program began in 1972, and brought both Asian and African music to the department. A lot of new music and experimentation was fostered and encouraged. Perhaps being in the middle of cornfields, 2-hours away from a major city, gave everyone a sense of “nobody’s watching, so we can do whatever we want.”

In 1977, following the retirement of one of the music composition faculty, the department hired Chinary Ung. I was not actually around for the hiring process, but I recall being told that Chinary was the first “doctorate with distinction” ever awarded by the Music School of Columbia University. Chinary had worked with Chou Wen-chung at Columbia, and also with George Crumb. I was excited about working with him.

In my first composition lessons with Chinary, I discovered that he had a very lively and agile mind, and a wicked sense of humor. Word play, puns, and jokes peppered his conversations, and I recall laughing a lot of times. Chinary’s approach to the compositional process, however, was 180 degrees from my own. I tended to imagine a formal trajectory that I then sought to fill in, or a conceptual process that would be allowed to unfold, while Chinary’s approach was to take the seed of an idea and push it to grow and flower in unexpected directions. I found his ideas fascinating, but I also found that whatever I took to show him then got unwound, as Chinary suggested alternative possibilities, or ways in which my ideas could be pushed in different directions. I felt like Penelope, pulling out the threads of the previous day’s weavings every night, while my tapestry never grew larger. In the months I studied with him, I never completed anything, though I still have some of the very reworked sketches (lots of erasing).

In the fall of 1978, I became part of two groups of musicians. The one, which I helped to form, was called EAGERE, which stood for the Early Avant-Garde EthNoh Rock Ensemble. EAGERE, like the Fluxus artists that inspired it, was a disorderly collection of people, without a clear agenda, other than a fostering of things that crossed the usual boundaries of style and genre in music. Chinary was often one of the faculty “advisors” to this group, offering suggestions, and even collaborating in our spring concert, where he played Hawaiian guitar in a work called “Cambo Soup Rock.” I should also mention that one of EAGERE’s key members was a violist named Susan Pounders, who would eventually become Susan Ung.

The other group I joined was an equally disorderly collective that called themselves Liquid Frequency. The key person in this group was Dennis Maxwell, whose home was also known as Frequency Studios. Dennis, who was exactly one week younger than me, was a student in the Music Theory class I taught, weekdays at 8 a.m. On Monday evenings, however, I joined him and his associates in freely improvised music, often with electronic enhancements. Chinary was also part of the “Monday Night Improvs” at Dennis’s house.

I recall one evening in particular, the night of the full moon, when an improv session was taking place seemed to become particularly profound, as though an intuitive connection linked everyone in the room. Chinary was improvising on a cello that night (though he wasn’t a cellist), and I recall the remarkable sounds that he drew from the instrument (I have a recording of that evening’s session). A few years later, in response to a request from the Vermeer Quartet’s cellist Marc Johnson, Chinary put those sounds into a more concrete form he called Khse Buon. I’ve heard many cellists play that work over the past 30 years or so, but I’m not sure any of them have matched the intensity of that improvised solo that Chinary played. I also have so many recollections of being witness to Chinary’s struggles, when the Khmer Rouge were engaged in the genocide of their own people, and Chinary was desperately trying to get his family out of Cambodia. I remember the long-distance phone calls, the interminable waiting, the terrible feeling of helplessness. That Chinary could then bring both insight and laughter to his friends during all of that horror struck me as phenomenally brave, and still does. It’s hard for me to imagine that all these things happened over 40 years ago. Those musical experiences, and the wild, talk-filled sessions that led up to them, still feel like an essential part of my artistic imagination. Central to so many of them is the presence of an alternately laughing and serious man, smoking a pipe, and offering puns and quips and adages (like “see how it goes” or “it’s all phonetics”). I know that for many people, Chinary is the esteemed Dr. Ung, winner of numerous prestigious awards and honors. To me, he will always be my esteemed playmate and co-conspirator against the artificial boundaries of art.
Jeff Abell November, 2022 Jeff Abell holds the title of Emeritus Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts at Columbia College Chicago.

“Life and death are like the two sides of a blank piece of paper.” (from conversation with Nick Fagnilli)
“…music is something I love to do, but it’s not at the top of my list anymore. Humanity, friendship, solving the suffering of your friends, yourself, reaching out to people, and so forth. There’s a list probably pretty long. And then there is music.”
-San Diego Union Tribune interview, 2011. Added by Nick Fagnilli

Generations of composers have found unwavering solace and clarity in the wisdom of Dr. Chinary Ung. He has completely reshaped my beliefs on music, creation, and life. I knew that music was everywhere, but Chinary showed me how to truly allow my creative energy to align with my conscious mind. He possesses a keen eye for the simple gestures of matter, light and energy that we see all around us in nature, seemingly always finding impetus at the drop of the hat for a musical construction. It is more than simply being “at one” with nature or with life and sound and music- I do not believe it improper to call Chinary truly enlightened, in every meaning, for his teachings do not simply put me more in touch with my creativity. They also balance my life and my spirit, and encourage my best practices, my best self.

“The time of enlightenment is one of no harmony or rhythm.” I feel compelled by Chinary’s beliefs as strongly as by his music. I hope that one day we will all be together in the place of eternal resonance.
-Nick Fagnilli, composer & assistant to Chinary

Chinary, your magical , mystical piece, Space Between the Fish and the Moon, literally got me through the pandemic, and was the heart and soul of my Heritage and Harmony video series on WQXR and Silver Linings EP. That, and all your mouth watering food pics on Facebook! My favorite Chinary quote: “If in doubt, have a bowl of wonton noodle soup” Happy 80th Birthday dear Chinary! May all your birthday wishes come true!
Warmly,
Donna
Donna Weng Friedman, pianist

I don't have warm personal memories of Chinary to share, because I'm a fan not a friend. But I didn't want to miss this opportunity to note how powerfully moved I've been by his music. And by his generosity in making that music available to people. I've witnessed what it's done for old timers to hear "Khse Buon for Solo Cello" or other master works, and seen their faces as the music speaks to them in the way no words ever could. Thank you for a lifetime of uplifting our existence, Professor! -- Ken Kurson, director of "Holidays In Cambodia"

Once I was talking with Chinary about an unpleasant situation I’d experienced in my life, and, with his usual wisdom, Chinary said, “When the sea is in turbulence and makes you sick, look out to the distance and remain equanimous, my friend.” —Shih-Hui Chen, composer and professor of music at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University.

‘I was so fortunate to first work with Chinary Ung on his beautiful marimba work called ‘Cinnabar Heart’. I have worked with many composers and Chinary for me was one of the best. I think the most interesting comment he said to me (and one that I will cherish) is the need for both performer and composer to take part in the compositional process. This made me feel like there was more of a sense of community in dealing with the creative process and ultimately helped with a more successful and thoughtful performance. Thank you Chinary for your compositional talents and your warmth as a human being. I feel blessed to know you!’

Sincerely,
BEVERLEY JOHNSTON

Happy Chinary Day ! Some of the greatest music lessons are with musicians that don't play your instrument. I will cherish forever the 6 hours I spent with Chinary exploring the depths and inspirations of his haunted opus 1 and profound act of preservation, "Khse Buon" for cello. I saw a performance of it when I was 11 years old. I was blown away, and started practicing everyday. The performance of this piece was pivotal for me to follow a dream that keeps getting bigger. I could not be more grateful for him to be a figure, mentor, and dude, in that dream. Can't wait to see what's next, Chief.
x. Wick Simmons

I was lucky to meet Dr. through my composition teacher Alejandro Iglesias. He was so kind to meet me virtually to know me and give me advice for applying to doctoral school. The conversation became into something more than just an strategy for applications. He helped me to reflect deeply on the concept of Coexistence. Listening to his music reaffirms this notion with grace and thoughtfulness. Subsequently, I requested him the score for his beautiful piece for Viola and Voice, “Mother and Child”. This piece became very especial to me since my first son was born while I studied the piece. I told him that I am sutdying the piece, and he said that I could call the piece “Father and Child” since my baby boy actually likes to hear it.

I look up to him as a role model as a human and artist. It has been a real privilege talking to him, and especially for his great sense of humor.

As I start the doctorate program at UCI (his advices really worked!), I send my best wishes and my deepest gratitude dear Dr. Ung, have a fabulous 80th birthday! Feliz cumpleaños Maestro!!
Sincerely,
Fabricio Cavero

Chinary has taught me much about myself. It is hard to find the right words to describe the level of depth of my lessons with him. In 5 years I think we discussed two scores. The rest were one and a half to sometimes three hours-long discussions about music and life, both highly intertwined with one another. It went from the power of concentric circles to the non-traditional music traditions of my homeland, to our experiences with totalitarian political regimes in our countries…but for now, one the craziest Chinary moments:

As I was writing my first jury piece during my first quarter as a composition grad-student, I hit what seemed a dead end…I had no idea on how to continue. I went to Price Center around 12:30, so you can have an idea how full of people P.C. was. I was troubled by not being able to find a solution so I started thinking, “I wish I could talk to Chinary right now”. Not even 10 minutes after that I hear Chinary’s voice behind me, with his typical greeting: “Maestro!”. In a place that packed Chinary happened to be right there when I needed him.

Chinary, there are no coincidences. You told me this.
One of the things I admire the most about is your child-like curiosity that allows you to discover something new, from the simplest to the deepest subjects, with innocence at times yet highly experienced.
“We are learners” ~Chinary

Love you, your Holiness. Happy Birthday!
Marcelo F. Lazcano

Over the past several decades, Cambodian-American Composer Chinary Ung has composed a diverse array of cross-cultural works, and he continues to expand and deepen his international role as a leading Asian composer and educator. I deeply appreciate Ung’s sharing with me his sincere and insightful words, his wisdom, and his many extraordinary stories. These still feed my spirit and enrich me every day.

1. Dr. Ung introduced me to the concept of “opposite logics,” a term he used to describe the process of being open to others and to mastering the logic of first attending to others. It took me a while to understand what he really meant. Some years later, I realized that Ung’s “opposite logics” related to the idea of compassion in Buddhism, which he often brought up to explain his pieces. This is but one example of where his guidance brought me to a new realization of something intangible far more valuable to my work than the things we value in the material world.
2. He encouraged me to take a closer look at my own surroundings to comprehend “imperfection” as part of nature—what he referred to as “perfected imperfection.” He advised me not to take a straight path as a composer but to enjoy every detour and stop once in a while to appreciate beautiful flowers on the street. He directed me to look up at a formation of birds in the sky, pointing out how a few birds were always following late. For every lesson, Ung assigned me this kind of enlightening homework, encouraging me to observe how nature exists in variety and irregularity— often different from its perfect appearance at first sight.
3. My most memorable story from my time with Dr. Ung involved the “chopstick moment” from an old Japanese movie. A samurai master is eating a bowl of rice, when he sees a fly buzzing around. A few seconds later, he reaches out his hand and effortlessly catches the fly in his chopsticks. It is in these “chopstick moments,” Professor Ung explained, that we are open: the mind, physics, and spiritual and physical awareness come together to create the potential for something extraordinary to happen. The moment is a dialogue with the universe.
Koji Nakano, Co-Director of The Asian Young Musicians’ Connection

26 February 2011. We have just finished a grand concert with Bosba, Chinary and 150 Cambodian artists in front of the Bayon Temple at Angkor Wat, the Unesco World Heritage site. Bosba just turned 14 and there is no infrastructure in the country to nurture her art. We asked Chinary: “what could be next?” “How about studying in the US?” he said. And that was the start of our adventure, a roller-coaster. At each intersection, each meltdown, we asked “what’s next?” “Look at the horizon” says Chinary, cracking jokes that he is the only one to understand at times. As Bosba and our children go through the excruciating journey of having their voice heard in the global scene, we ask “what’s next?”. “Trust our children” Chinary says, “they will be fine”. As a decade has passed, we have come to realize when our boat rocks too much that Chinary is the horizon. Chinary is the horizon. Ork Khun, thank you Lok Khru.
‘Lok Khru’ លោកគ្រូ meaning a master, a teacher, a healer, a guru.
Lili Sisombat

Chinary has broadened my understanding and deepened my vision in music, in my culture and Asian aesthetics, but I also began to discover my individual creative voice and began to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western cultures in my own musical language. The culture shock I experienced during my first two years in the United States ultimately found its way into my music, leading me to an exploration of Western musical ideas as well as to a deeper study of Chinese cultural and musical influences. Chinary helps me closely examine both Chinese and Western cultures and eventually adapting this knowledge, I have been able to create my own musical interpretation and expression of the two cultures.

Chinary also inspired me the importance of the confluence of cultures in one’s music and learned to establish an aesthetic belief in traditional music, culture and the arts. The confluence of cultures creates a new beginning for the future rather than a new culture. The numerous musical cultures in my musical experience have enriched and revitalized my musical language. It is a historical fact that every culture has been shaped by social conditiona, aesthetics, customs, tradition, climate, geographical location and political situation. Our cultures are based on past and ongoing cultural confluences. I will follow this path in teaching composition, to encourage students to explore subjects deeply, to guide them in searching for their legacy (to find the root of their culture and nurture that from generation to generation), to emphasize the importance of merging and re-emerging with their legacy contained within their own voice, to provide plenty of creative freedom and to allow different aesthetics to coexist within their compositions.

Chinary also taught me the importance of using species in cooking as we do in our composing.
Thank you Chinary for your enlightenment!
Pui-shan CHEUNG, Co-Director of The Asian Young Musicians’ Connection

I am grateful to have Loukrou Chinary Ung as a friend and a mentor. Loukrou always gives me sound advice.
Happy 80th birthday, Loukrou!

Chinary has broadened my understanding and deepened my vision in music, in my culture and Asian aesthetics, but I also began to discover my individual creative voice and began to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western cultures in my own musical language. The culture shock I experienced during my first two years in the United States ultimately found its way into my music, leading me to an exploration of Western musical ideas as well as to a deeper study of Chinese cultural and musical influences. Chinary helps me closely examine both Chinese and Western cultures and eventually adapting this knowledge, I have been able to create my own musical interpretation and expression of the two cultures.

Chinary also inspired me the importance of the confluence of cultures in one’s music and learned to establish an aesthetic belief in traditional music, culture and the arts. The confluence of cultures creates a new beginning for the future rather than a new culture. The numerous musical cultures in my musical experience have enriched and revitalized my musical language. It is a historical fact that every culture has been shaped by social conditiona, aesthetics, customs, tradition, climate, geographical location and political situation. Our cultures are based on past and ongoing cultural confluences. I will follow this path in teaching composition, to encourage students to explore subjects deeply, to guide them in searching for their legacy (to find the root of their culture and nurture that from generation to generation), to emphasize the importance of merging and re-emerging with their legacy contained within their own voice, to provide plenty of creative freedom and to allow different aesthetics to coexist within their compositions.

Chinary also taught me the importance of using species in cooking as we do in our composing.
Thank you Chinary for your enlightenment!
Pui-shan CHEUNG, Co-Director of The Asian Young Musicians’ Connection

During the summer of 2014, I first met Dr. Ung at a music festival in Bangkok where “Singing Inside Aura for Viola and Orchestra” was performed. I was mesmerized by the piece and I could only hope to have an opportunity to study with him one day. Six months later, I got a research grant to study his masterpiece for orchestra, “Inner Voices.”

During my research in San Diego, Dr. Ung was teaching me by adopting an old Asian method. Like many traditional-music masters had done with their disciples, he kindly invited me to stay in his lovely home with Susan and the cats. From the first moment, conversations about music and life never stopped, and the best lessons often happened naturally over meals, during hikes in Rose Canyon, or during train rides to and from Los Angeles. No music scores needed, only pure wisdom.

Little I knew that my research on his “Inner Voices” was more for him to guide me to search for my own “inner voices”, and to “compose from within while observing the outer world.” His analogy of a line running through a circle represents a division between Eastern and Western worlds. The solid line later becomes a dotted line that let the two worlds co-exist seamlessly. Eventually, the circle and the dotted line fades to nothingness, no more line, no more circle. This Buddhism philosophy of impermanence, Anicca, is not only found in his music, but also reflected in his selflessness and generosity.

Dr. Ung, I can never thank you enough for your kindness and everything you have taught me.
Happy 80th Birthday!!
Pang Vongtaradon

For Chinary on his 80th!!

The wide range of expression, the passion, depth – and also the frolic – of Chinary’s music are enormously gratifying for performers. The Da Capo Chamber Players has been absolutely thrilled with the piece he wrote for us, Oracle (2004). In rehearsals for that and for many other projects, he is unfailingly sensitive, boundlessly musical, while always demanding and helping us achieve the very best and reach new dimensions of the music. We have been super fortunate – collaborating with Chinary on recordings, concerts, residencies at UCSD, and, most recently, his wonderful participation in our “Musical Offerings for Human Rights“ online project. For that project, yet another strength of his music came to the fore – it’s relevance. Child Song is a perfect example — delighting in and preserving Cambodian song during a time when it was forbidden.

Underlying all of the above our Chinary’s personal warmth and generosity – receptions, dinner invitations, and rehearsals are all characterized by a warm camaraderie that brings every interaction to a high and wonderful level. Wishing you joy for your 80th and beyond, Chinary!!
– Patricia Spencer, Flutist, Da Capo Chamber Players

I am grateful to have Loukrou Chinary Ung as a friend and a mentor. Loukrou always gives me sound advice. Happy 80th birthday, Loukrou!
Sean Yiath

Chinary is someone special to me. He is someone who understood me from the moment I arrived at UCSD, in contrast, it took me a little longer to understand him. At some point I did not agree with his way of teaching, since it is very contrasting with the past experiences I have had. However, I knew that I had to go back to talk with him about my music, since precisely his peculiar way of teaching and talking about music and composition is what makes him such a valuable teacher and person.

One of the most valuable pieces of advice that he has given me is when he recommended that I listen to all the music that I have composed, and in each piece, choose the fragment that I like the most and analyze why, since according to him, those are the moments that – although they may be stylistically different due to the different times I wrote the – define me as a composer and will always return to my music in one way or another.
Thanks Chinary!
Jacques Zafra

I began studying music composition with Chinary when I was seventeen years old at Northern Illinois University between 1977-1979. When I accepted to attend NIU as a clarinet student of Mel Warner I was told that there was going to be an excellent young composer on the faculty from New York City starting in the Fall. The day after I arrived at NIU I took a walk around the hallways of the music building to get a feel of the place. Most of the doors were closed with names I didn’t recognize except for Mel Warner’s. I eventually found a door that was opened and without a name plate. I looked in and spied around and saw some manuscript paper on an upright piano. I remember liking the sketches I saw. As I was about to leave Chinary appeared—a thin bespectacled Asian man with crazy black hair with his ever present pipe. He greeted me and I told him I was a clarinet and composition student. I asked him if he was the composer from New York and he said yes. I sat in his office and he went on to tell me that clarinet was his instrument too. I had some of my music with me and he asked to look at it. He looked at it long and carefully. He didn’t have much to say—asked some basic questions. He then started to talk about inspiration. He focused in on an image of throwing a stone into the water and observing the expanding rings and equating the phenomenon to musical form. After that description all I could do was image rings expanding on the surface of water! He then invited me to diner at the Ground Round and we probably spent a couple of more hours talking about all aspects of music including John Cage, his teacher Chou and his teacher Varese... It was mind expanding and continued to be for the following two years. When my studies with Chinary came to a close, the same music was still on Chinary’s piano. There was a lot more going on in his life far, far away. Wonderfully, Chinary’s life has come full circle and I feel very fortunate to remain a friend.
-Mark Gustavson, composer

Chinary is a true mentor. He never pushes you to follow his mind but inspires you with his unique humor and wisdom. Anything can be the key that leads to his enlightenment. A roadside flower and a neighbor's fruit tree are all metaphors for his profound thoughts, which enable us to understand the world better.

Growing from a music lover in Cambodia to a highly renowned composer worldwide, his life is a legend and an encouragement to us all. We have rarely met an artist who has the same talent and remains humble. At age 80, Chinary doesn't brag about his past but always looks forward to the future with love and dedication. As a young composer who has significantly benefited from Chinary's teaching and life experience, I wish him good health and a wonderful birthday. Thank you, Professor.
Delong Wang, Composer

Om! Happy Birthday dear friend! I met you 20 plus years ago through your lovely wife Susan. I was going through a tough time in life at that time. Sitting with you silently in the morning San Diego sun it hit me that all was well with me! You are me and I am you and we are all together! Peace to you my friend on this auspicious day!
Gretchen Clearwater

Dr. Ung was one of the main reasons that I decided to study at the University of California, San Diego. During our studies, he would talk about technique, as well as intuition and the spirit that he believed is needed for the art of composition. I remember one time he said music academia is mostly about intervals and rhythm, but you will need more than that. He then mentioned J.S Bach and Beethoven. Emphasizing that one can hear in their music that they had a connection with God. “God” as a source that is beyond the physical universe and all its conventions. His technical suggestions and critique of my scores were also very helpful. One small change in score suggested by him in a single measure, would make a huge difference in the overall feel of a piece. He was also helpful in freeing myself in the art of composition. He mentioned to me once that I am “playing it safe” and will need to be braver.

When it comes to his music, to me he is like a prism. Give him a white light and he would separate it into multiple colors. He proves that a simple and seemingly banal melody can become original, beautiful, and transcendental. I will not forget my late night walks on UCSD campus while listening to his works. Happy 80th birthday Dr. Chinary Ung. Wishing you joy.
-Narek Martirosian

I'm always grateful to Prof. Chou Wen Chung who recommended me to be invited by Asia Cultural Council as their visiting scholar fellow to visit the United States in 2016, during my ACC residency in New York City Prof. Chou introduced me to his former student Prof. Chinary Ung, I remembered very well that when Prof Chinary and I took the train from New York to Washinton D.C for his concert with Del Sol Quartet, in the train ride he shared with me how he composed for his international Grawemeyer award composition "Inner Voices" with his notion of Cambodian religion believes and cultural practices, I really moved by his insight knowledge of traditional Cambodian music and also his innovative way with the Western instruments to express his deep oriental philosophy and esthetic, his music is so intimate for all musicians and listeners, really a great master to create a deep aura for his music!

On many other Asian music projects occasions, I met Prof. Chinary regularly, I witness that he always patiently shared his music aesthetic with many Asian young composers and musicians, he organized a creative composition workshop in Cambodia is really a millstone for all young Cambodian traditional musicians and young composers, this is an important inspiration for us to following his concept how to nurturing our South East Asia traditional musicians and young composers!

I'd like to send my big congrats to Prof. Chinary on his upcoming 80s birthday celebration, Chinary, you are always my great mentor and dearest friend!!
Dr Kee Yong CHONG
Composer, artistic director of SMCC SoundBridge Festival (Malaysia)

Among the many pearls of wisdom that Chinary shared with me, I particularly cherish his encouragement to cultivate an awareness of different “time zones”—of the different scales on which time cycles and flows, beyond those suggested by our modern day-to-day routines. Over a pho lunch in La Jolla in February 2020—in characteristically whimsical yet profound fashion—Chinary likened this to an earthbound creature suddenly finding itself aboard a UFO and taking a trip through outer space before returning to our planet. Chinary’s insight and generosity of spirit, to say nothing of his beautiful music, will always be with me. Thank you, Chinary, for all of the ways you inspire us.
Alex Stephenson

I like your inner vision of compositions, I think they are touching souls in universe and this inner sound would some days find the reality that in its certain frequencies human souls are known and recognized each others in another world.
Listening to your music - as listening to souls frequencies in another world. And only people that have a talent could reach to your top inner voice.

Happy Birthday To You, bong
Let's your discovery keep moving on forwards more and more into the inner voice
With respects and affections
From Cambodian Tenor - Sethisak Khuon

A powerful question from Chinary not only that impacted my life as a Myanmar composer but also will keep asking to the Asian composers of future generations came first to my ears in Nirmita Composers’ Worship 2016 in Seam Reap. In my very first quartet in Nirmita, I explained that I borrowed the western harmony – a Myanmar folk-tune styled melody was harmonized by the western tonal harmony. When the comment section came, Dr. Ung asked me “When would you give the western harmony back if you had borrowed it?” This question is repeating itself in my mind whenever I try to shape the harmony in my composition and it is also teaching me what is the cultural value in art.
Wai Hin Ko Ko, Myanmar

One of the most important things Chinary taught me is how to soar freely in a world full of imagination. As I walked alongside him on a sunny day in San Diego, he shared, “I like thinking, thinking freely. You know, with a sketch, you have to write it down, but with thinking, you can go anywhere.”

Happy 80th birthday, Lok Khru! Thank you for being the guiding light on my artistic journey. Your wisdom endures, and your spirit will forever be cherished.
With gratitude,
Yongyun Zhang