Bosba Panh

Earlier this year, I decided to switch from coffee (double cream, double sugar, 3x/day) to green tea. It worked wonderfully as a caffeine substitute.I gouged down the magic elixir while walking in the morning to choir, before classes at noon, at six with dinner and 9pm when the solo study sessions were getting boring or right before I went for my “composition shift” from 10pm to midnight. Maybe a small cup before bed at 1 or 2 in the morning.

Thankfully I didn’t just spend time drinking tea and…

A month ago, I stumbled upon Laura Dean and Sothy Eng’s Article “What Arts Education could offer to Cambodia 42 years after the Khmer Rouge Regime” while walking back to my apartment after midnight, on Twitter. I found it a coincidence that I was reading it at a point where I was seriously considering how to implement arts education in Cambodia I wrote back to the authors that night. Arts education is an issue I hold dear, as I feel guilty for having the chance to study music when others back home do not…

I was thrown back into the spotlight the moment I got off the plane: the customs officers asked to take pictures before I had to walk out the double doors into the hot and humid “Arrivals” area. A dozen of cameras flashed and “RED” signs went on. A prickly jasmine necklace was placed around my neck and I was hushed to a corner of the airport café for the first of a series of  press conferences. “How was America? Why are you back? What changed?  What are your hopes for Cambodia? Who are you with? I smiled…

The Nirmita Composers Workshop founded by Dr. Chinary UNG, a Cambodian-American composer and professor of composition based in California. Dr. UNG was born in the province of Takeo, and studied music in the United States where he completed his PhD at Columbia University. He is the first Cambodian and American to win the Grawemeyer Award, considered by many to be the Nobel Prize in Composition. He has a long and fruitful career marked by many commissions and awards such as the Kennedy Center Friedheim…

I woke up this morning, no construction noises, remembered summer vacation was actually a thing ..

This pas semester was very taxing , emotionally, not so much academically. I am on the Dean's List, and managed to premiere a new piece every month through NEC's Tuesday Night New Music Concert Series or other venues. I finished my first song cycle for piano and voice, wrote for brass for the first time (rough...) and was commissioned my first harp piece which was premiered in Toronto by my best friend Clara…

I was interviewed by Voice of America (VOA) on being the first female South-East Asian composer to have been accepted and attending the New England Conservatory, and my transition from voice to composition. 

How do you feel about getting into one of the top music schools in America ?

I was very surprised and very happy to get in NEC. I had only taken composition lessons as a minor and this is the result of hard work of course. Coming from a country where music education isn't as developed as in…

I graduated from the Walnut Hill  School for the Arts on June 6, 2015 with honors. 

There is not enough words to describe how thankful I am for the past three years. I am thankful for the friends and connection I have made, and all the knowledge gained. Special thanks go to my college counselor Sarah Lovely, my voice teachers Debra Parker and Angela Gooch, and to my composition teacher Mr. Brown for guiding me through this year. 

Leaving Walnut Hill isn't so bad, after all I will still be in Boston…

This is the note for the ceremony that was written for ceremony in preparation of my concert@Angkor in February 2011.

RITUALS OF PRAYER TO KRONG PEALY AND THWAY KHRU

Invocations to the Masters

Led by achar Sok Mom "Khum"

Singers: Voum Sreyroth - Chhorn Sam Ath

 On the day before the two Bosbapanh@Angkor concerts on February 24, 2011, the artists and their backstage team held the solemn ceremony of Krong Pealy to offer prayers to the creators of the Universe and other celestial beings. This is followed…

Thank you to Reasey Poch from VOA on the coverage of my studies at the  Walnut Hill School for the Arts. The program starts at 3 minutes in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrNmOaI71aE

https://youtu.be/-bTNrZ0F_T8

We spent the last three days at the fishing village of Koh Pdau to give donation from our charity concert "Melodies of Hope" which took place at Pannasastra University on February 11, 2012.

Koh Pdau is a fishing village that has been dramatically affected by climate change and dams so they can not catch as much fish as before. They told us that 10 years ago they could get 30 kilos a night, now it is less than 5 kg.There is no electricity, no tap water.

Life has become harder and their children are…