Master Chum Ngek

2004 was a very good year for a very humble Gaithersburg man. If you saw Chum Ngek in the street or at a mall, you might not notice him. True he does stand out a little- he is a good looking fellow. And clearly he’s Asian, perhaps a little unusual some places though not here in Maryland. Chum’s manner is so soft spoken and gentle you would be a perceptive person indeed if you realized how important and valued he is.

For Chum Ngek is a master musician, arguably the world’s finest in his genre, the complex and ancient forms of Khmer pinpeat music. Pinpeat music is played by ensembles of gongs, drums, and the xylophone-like roneat, and also features wind instruments. The sound of pinpeat is multilayered and hypnotic, waves upon waves of shimmering sound livened by delicate ornaments and driven by a strong and even pulse. Pinpeat originated in the palace court of the Khmer Empire, the formidable and prosperous civilization that dominated Indochina from the 9th through 15th centuries. This music accompanies the court dance traditions with their elaborate costumes, emotional delicacy, and great beauty. It is in relationship to this dance that pinpeat thrives here in Maryland and our neighboring state, Virginia. Without Master Chum's leadership and skill it would not be possible to sustain this music.

That’s partly why 2004 was such a fine year for Master Chum. A special category of the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Awards has been named after public folk arts visionary Bess Lomax Hawes and reserved for people who make significant contributions to the infrastructure of the cultural communities they treasure. Recognizing that without Master Chum the Cambodian performing arts community would have lost its musical foundation, the award judges picked him for this singular and prestigious honor.

After years of service, taking a back seat to the dancers on stage, the humble music master had the spotlight on him. In October of 2004 he performed before a packed house at the program’s Award Ceremony in George Washington’s Lisner Auditorium.

Maybe, though, he could have seen it coming. Things had been looking up. In December of 2003 he received happy news. He and his devoted student, friend and biographer, Joanna Pecore, were selected as a team in our first year of the Maryland Traditions Apprenticeship Awards program. We were deeply grateful to be able to support this unsung hero in sharing his art, and realized the exceptional nature of the partnership that Master Chum and Joanna share, a partnership that began in 1996 and that continues today.