December 21, 2017 | Theatre,

Massachusetts House of Representatives Honors Bangsokol & ArtsEmerson

 

ArtsEmerson was presented with a great honor on the final night of Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia from State Representative Rady Mom, 18th Middlesex District for “engaging all communities through the arts that unites us all as one diverse world”

Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia, which will next appear in Paris in 2018, is an extraordinary new composition fusing music, film, voice and movement. It is the first major symphonic work that addresses the traumas that occurred in Cambodia in the late seventies, and is the first collaboration between the Oscar-nominated director Rithy Panh and lauded composer Him Sophy — both survivors of the Khmer Rouge and now at the forefront of Cambodia’s cultural renaissance. Anchored in “bangsokol” — a ritual for the dead or soon to be deceased — the performance intertwines traditional Khmer instruments with The Metropolis Ensemble orchestra and the Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir. All together, they create something innately Cambodian but relatable to audiences everywhere.

Below: more photos from the closing night of the run in Boston and the post-show discussion presented in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves.

 

Leading up to the sold-out run of Bangsokol in Boston, we presented Cambodian Culture, Art and History a month-long series of free and ticketed community engagement events in Boston and Lowell that included films, conversations and workshops; and culminated with the community screening of the film First They Killed My Father, produced by Oscar-nominated Rithy Pahn and Angelina Jolie.