Music group sets Asian residency

BRINGING it a step closer to its dream of becoming the first U.S. music group to have residencies in Vietnam and Cambodia since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 and the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Southwest Chamber Music has secured funds to go to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Hanoi in December to play music by Grawemeyer Award-winning Cambodian American composer Chinary Ung.

“We’re looking forward to taking Chinary back home,” Southwest artistic director Jeff von der Schmidt said last week.

The project, which is also scheduled to include master classes and trips by Cambodian and Vietnamese composers to the U.S., is being partly funded by a three-year $200,000 matching grant from the San Francisco-based James Irvine Foundation.

Before leaving, the chamber group also plans to record music by Ung, Von der Schmidt said. Southwest has recently won two Grammy Awards for CDs of music by Carlos Chavez.

The Southwest Asian trip is to be documented by John Schneider for broadcast on his “Global Village” program on KPFK-FM (90.7). The broadcast date will be announced later.

-- Chris Pasles