Sam-Ang Sam (, ) is a Cambodian-American

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

and 1994 recipient of a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (as part of the Apsara Ensemble) in 1998. Sam-Ang Sam and his wife Chan Moly Sam spent "more than two decades" (as of 1993) "performing, teaching, researching, and documenting" their native country's

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and dances. Having studied in Cambodia, they were in the Philippines when the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihano ...

took over Cambodia in 1975, and escaped the genocide that killed an estimated 90 percent of the country's musicians. He and his wife moved to the United States, and Sam-Ang got his doctorate in ethnomusicology in 1998 from Wesleyan University. He and his wife performed in various locations in the United States the between 1979 and 2005 with a dance troupe of Cambodian dancers. Their own performing troupe was called the Apsara Ensemble. As founder of Sam-Ang Sam Ensemble, he has released several albums for sale in mainstream American markets in an attempt to revive Classical Khmer music and stimulate interest in the various Cambodian performing arts.

Recordings and video

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Print Publications

* Dissertation: Ph.D., Wesleyan University, Conn. 1988 * * Musical score (Khmer) * * title transcription as ''Kār paṅhāñ bī rapiap saṃbaḥ khmaer''. *

References

External links

Cambodian music & dance in AmericaPage on Cambodian music by Sam-Ang Sam.Cover of ''Silent Temples, Songful Hearts''
American people of Cambodian descent Cambodian musicians American ethnomusicologists Living people MacArthur Fellows National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-ethnomusicologist-stub