Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Mekong musical heritage on show this weekend in Siem Reap

Mekong musical heritage on show this weekend in Siem Reap

Vietnamese group Dong King Co Nhac, who will perform tonight and Saturday at REPfest.
Vietnamese group Dong King Co Nhac, who will perform tonight and Saturday at REPfest. Photo supplied

Mekong musical heritage on show this weekend in Siem Reap

For many, an airport is considered a place of hassles, delays and general annoyances. But for Song Seng, the director of Cambodian Living Arts’ Heritage Hub, it’s where cultures converge. Hence the name REPfest – after the acronym for the Siem Reap International Airport – a three-day music festival beginning today that has brought traditional musicians from around the region to Temple Town.

The festival features three days of public performances and workshops at three venues in Siem Reap, including CLA’s Heritage Hub inside of Wat Bo, Sala Thoam Chas and Krousar Thmey. Performing will be a shadow theatre troupe from Laos, Japanese flutist Kohei Nishikawa, the group Law Ka Nat from the Anyar region of Myanmar and Vietnamese ensemble Đông Kinh Cổ Nhạc, among other artists. There will also be two newly-formed groups playing from Cambodia – all-female drumming collective Medha and the group Yaksao.

Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Medha, a Cambodian all-female drumming group formed earlier this year. Photo supplied

According to Phan Chamroeun, the leader of the seven-piece Yaksao, the group formed just five months ago, and this will be its second time performing. They have backgrounds in traditional music but, fitting with the theme of the festival, they experiment with new forms and compositions. Both Yaksao and Medha emerged from workshops organised earlier this year by CLA .  

“Especially these few years, we can see that young people and young artists want to move on with their own identity, but with the resources they gain from their ancestors, their masters,” CLA’s Seng said.  

Especially confident in their own identity is Medha, which means “resourceful woman” in Khmer. Drumming in Cambodia has typically been a male domain, but Sang Sreypich, 26, and her team are challenging that notion.

“Before we never knew if women could play the drum instrument,“ she said. “My teachers said women can’t play the drums because when they hit them it is very painful on the hand, and women don’t have enough energy.”

During an artist residency, the group practised with one instructor to learn the basics of drumming. CLA then commissioned them later on to create more work from what they had learned.

“The quality is just ‘wow’,” Seng said.

So far the group has put together three compositions, which include some singing and chanting. Their performance this weekend, Sreypich said, is to convey the message “there is no division between man and woman”.

“We want to encourage and break through the challenges.”

Public workshops and performances in Siem Reap begin today and will be held through Sunday. For more information about REPfest and a full schedule of events, visit https://www.cambodianlivingarts.org/repfest/  

MOST VIEWED

  • Joy as Koh Ker Temple registered by UNESCO

    Cambodia's Koh Ker Temple archaeological site has been officially added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, during the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 17. The ancient temple, also known as Lingapura or Chok Gargyar, is located in

  • Famed US collector family return artefacts to Cambodia

    In the latest repatriation of ancient artefacts from the US, a total of 33 pieces of Khmer cultural heritage will soon return home, according to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. In a September 12 press statement, it said the US Attorney’s Office for the

  • Tina rebuffs ‘false claims’ over falling paddy price

    Agriculture minister Dith Tina has shed light on the trade of paddy rice in Battambang – Cambodia’s leading rice-producing province – in a bid to curb what he dubs a “social media fact distortion campaign” to destabilise the market. While acknowledging that the prices of paddy

  • Cambodia set to celebrate Koh Ker UNESCO listing

    To celebrate the inscription of the Koh Ker archaeological site on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, the Ministry of Cults and Religion has appealed to pagodas and places of worship to celebrate the achievement by ringing bells, shaking rattles and banging gongs on September 20. Venerable

  • Kampot curfew imposed to curb ‘gang’ violence

    Kampot provincial police have announced measures to contain a recent spike in antisocial behaviour by “unruly’ youth. Officials say the province has been plagued by recent violence among so-called “gang members”, who often fight with weapons such as knives and machetes. Several social observers have

  • PM outlines plans to discuss trade, policy during US visit

    Prime Minister Hun Manet is set to meet with senior US officials and business leaders during his upcoming visit to the US for the UN General Assembly (UNGA), scheduled for September 20. While addressing nearly 20,000 workers in Kampong Speu province, Manet said he aims to affirm