Chinary Ung, composer

Born: Cambodia, 1942

Came to the U.S.: in 1964 to study clarinet and composition at the Manhattan School of Music; became a composition student of Chinese-American composer Chou Wen-Chung; earned a DMA in Composition with distinction from Columbia University in 1974.

Has taught at: Northern Illinois University, Connecticut College, University of Pennsylvania, Arizona State University; currently a Professor of Composition at University of California, San Diego

His music: has been commissioned by major orchestras around the world and has been recorded extensively. Bridge Records will soon release a recording of several of his instrumental works.

Grants and Awards: Guggenheim Foundation, Serge Koussevitsky Music Foundation, BMI, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund, Meet the Composer Foundation; in 1989 Chinary Ung became the first American winner of the international Grawemeyer Award for his orchestral piece Inner Voices.

Also plays: the Roneat Ek, the traditional solo xylophone for the Cambodian percussion-dominated orchestra, pin peat, which accompanies the court dance

Musical ideas: grow out of the synthesis of Western techniques and craft, together with the aesthetics and principals found in the many traditions and instrumental techniques of Asia. His works of the last ten years have required instrumentalists to perform extensive vocalizations, including singing different lines while also playing. He has created an entire body of work which requires all instrumentalists to venture into a demanding mind-set of musical multi-tasking.