One of the more unexpected musical ensembles to arise over last few years in Cambodia has been Siem Reap’s Angkor Classique, with their offering of classical chamber music. Ahead of their show as a quartet this Saturday at Au Marche in Phnom Penh, LengPleng sat down with co-founder, flautist Leo Salazar, and their newest member, oboe player Noah Al-Malt, to talk repertoire, venues, and the ongoing search for classical musicians.
LP: So where did it begin, Leo?
LS: One day I was having coffee with my friend Jim Latt, who had been involved in the Mozart at Angkor project, and we were agreeing that there should be more classical music in Siem Reap in particular and Cambodia in general. He said okay, I’ll find the musicians, you find the music. So in addition to myself he found two clarinets, a violin and a cello. I googled that combination and came up with a piece by Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire, a chamber music arrangement for that instrumentation plus piano and voice. Which is much more fun to play than it is to listen to.
NA: Schoenberg is extremely academic, the whole 12-tone concept is – well, it’s conceptual.
LS: Not necessarily enjoyable.
NA: The feeling of having performed something impressive rather than what the audience wants to listen to.
LS: This is June 2022. We had a few rehearsals, but it kind of fizzled out with people leaving and being busy with other things. Violinist Simon Gilbert and I decided to continue as Angkor Classique, focusing on Baroque music. We added people as they came through, and lost others as they moved on. We have done a number of shows at the Apsara Theatre in Siem Reap, very professionally organised by Giuliano Turello, which is really nice, but as they are more focused on putting on traditional Cambodian dance for tour groups it’s usually off-season nights that we can do there. After a series of gigs at various restaurants, Thomas at Au Marche in Phnom Penh offered us a regular monthly gig.
LP: After a couple of years in development, how do you describe Angkor Classique?
LS: We are Cambodia’s only regularly performing classical music ensemble, we perform Baroque music for a discerning audience, and we are grateful to Au Marche for providing us with the opportunity to do that.
LP: Has the pattern of finding music to match the players continued, or has it moved in the other direction?
LS: The repertoire continues to be driven by the instrumentation. Usually through word-of-mouth we pick up a horn player here, a string player there, and work with the various combinations we can find. There’s a lot of material out there.
LP: Noah, I understand you’ve had a varied musical career in Cambodia, passing through a number of bands.
NA: I started in the Phnom Penh music scene through Kheltica, playing Irish music. My friend James Douglas was the lead singer at the time, and he asked if I’d like to get involved. The band said yes, the oboe sounds good with the violin, the flute and the whistles. My first gig with them was at Sebastian Adnot’s Jazz Club; I was subsequently invited to play with his band Hot Club de Phnom Penh – can you play the jazz brunch at Sofitel on Sunday with us? So then I was playing gypsy jazz. And that’s something you don’t do on the oboe, an alto sax would have been better, but I spent a lot of time learning gypsy jazz technique. When I moved back to Cambodia recently trombone player Jonathan Dunn put me in a group chat of musicians. I looked up Leo’s background, and saw he had some classical music venture, and I reached out to him – hey, I want to be involved in this. This is actually the first time we’re meeting physically in person – we have only dealt with each other online thus far.
LS: I’ve never heard him play oboe, so I’m very curious how tonight’s rehearsal will go.
NA: Putting together classical ensembles – it’s extremely difficult to find qualified players who are available. Right before COVID we set up a group with Metta Legita on piano, Jen Bird on flute, Cheak Bunhong on clarinet and Michelle Bowen on bassoon. Unfortunately COVID derailed that project.
LP: Where do you see Angkor Classique going?
LS: Up until now it’s been kind of ad hoc, people come and go. In the beginning we were very ambitious, thinking about touring throughout Southeast Asia. The biggest challenge is that we all have full agendas doing other things, we aren’t full-time musicians.
These part-time after-hours musicians (along with violinist Glenn Pian and cellist Miri Cho) will perform a programme including works by Purcell, Telemann, Handel, Mozart and Vivaldi (and no Schoenberg) on Saturday at French restaurant Au Marche. Bookings highly recommended.
Photos: supplied
