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Yoeun Mek (1939 - 2014) was a Cambodian musician who joined the Cambodian Master Performers Program (now Cambodian Living Arts) in 1999, an organization founded by his friend Arn Chorn-Pond to preserve Cambodian music, arts and rituals and keep traditional instruments from going extinct. The program, in its quest to preserve Khmer music, sought out Cambodia's "nearly extinct instruments and the people who can make and play them." 80-90% of the musicians of the country were "purged" by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. Out of the people who could play the traditional instruments to a high level, the Cambodian Master Performers Program estimated that only 100 to 200 musicians had survived the executions, which targeted almost everyone with an education, those who understood a foreign language, and many artists (including musicians, writers, and filmmakers).
Yoeun, who had made his first
Picture of Yoeun Mek playing the tro so.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040816030001/http://www.cambodianmasters.org/masters/Library/interviews/int_mek8.htm Yoeun Mek answered questions by 8th grade students in Lowell, Massachusetts. The interview, recorded in November of 2001 at Wat Bo in Siem Reap, was conducted by Chath pier Sath and Arn Chorn-Pond.]
Photo album of images of Yoeunn Mek by Alan Morgan."Mai Boksroeur," featuring Yoeun Mek on the tror so fiddle, April 1999."Khai Ronoch" featuring Yoeun Mek on the tror so fiddle, April 1999.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoeun, Mek Cambodian musicians
Yoeun Mek (1939 - 2014) was a Cambodian musician who joined the Cambodian Master Performers Program (now Cambodian Living Arts) in 1999, an organization founded by his friend Arn Chorn-Pond to preserve Cambodian music, arts and rituals and keep traditional instruments from going extinct. The program, in its quest to preserve Khmer music, sought out Cambodia's "nearly extinct instruments and the people who can make and play them." 80-90% of the musicians of the country were "purged" by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. Out of the people who could play the traditional instruments to a high level, the Cambodian Master Performers Program estimated that only 100 to 200 musicians had survived the executions, which targeted almost everyone with an education, those who understood a foreign language, and many artists (including musicians, writers, and filmmakers).
Yoeun, who had made his first tro sor
The ''tro'' ( km, ទ្រ) is Cambodia's traditional spike fiddles, Bow (music), bowed string instruments that are held and played vertically. Spike fiddles have a handle that passes through the resonator, often forming a spike, on the bottom s ...
when he was 15, was a "master" of the tro family of instruments, especially the tro sau thom
The ''tro'' ( km, ទ្រ) is Cambodia's traditional spike fiddles, bowed string instruments that are held and played vertically. Spike fiddles have a handle that passes through the resonator, often forming a spike, on the bottom side where it ...
and tro u
The ''tro'' ( km, ទ្រ) is Cambodia's traditional spike fiddles, bowed string instruments that are held and played vertically. Spike fiddles have a handle that passes through the resonator, often forming a spike, on the bottom side where i ...
. He also knew enough about the khim
The ''khim'' ( th, ขิม ; lo, ຂິມ ; km, ឃឹម ) is a stringed musical instrument derived from the Mesopotamian or Persian Santur. It is similar to the Hammered Dulcimer or Cimbalom. This ''khim'' was introduced to Thailand fro ...
, takhay, drums and chheng to include them in his teaching traditional wedding songs.
In 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took over the capitol at Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
, he would have been about 36. His friend Arn would have been 9-years old that year. Both Yoeun and Arn were in the same Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...
work camp together; working in the fields by day, and playing music for the soldiers in the evening. His friend may have saved his life by begging the soldiers to let Yoeun play with the small group that entertained them. Rather than play traditional Cambodian music, Yoeun was permitted to play revolutionary music with communist themes: "the dances depict hardworking people, farmers working together, people digging canals and people laboring in the sun to fix railroad and so on." Separately from the soldiers, Yoeun taught his friend traditional music that was forbidden by their government.
After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Yoeun worked for his country's new government, in the State Department of Art and Culture until he retired. He set up a barbershop and was found by his friend Arn, who hired him to teach his instrument at the Cambodian Master Performers Program.
References
External links
Picture of Yoeun Mek playing the tro so.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040816030001/http://www.cambodianmasters.org/masters/Library/interviews/int_mek8.htm Yoeun Mek answered questions by 8th grade students in Lowell, Massachusetts. The interview, recorded in November of 2001 at Wat Bo in Siem Reap, was conducted by Chath pier Sath and Arn Chorn-Pond.]
Photo album of images of Yoeunn Mek by Alan Morgan.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoeun, Mek Cambodian musicians