A short history of the Kampot Traditional Music School as written by the school’s founder,
Ms. Catherine Geach

1990 to Present day

I was born in England and in 1990 at the age of eighteen, following over a year of research on modern Cambodian history, I came to Cambodia during summer recess to do a report on the violation of Human Rights by the Khmer Rouge. This research was done during the civil war in areas of Cambodia affected by the Khmer Rouge; It was done to show the International Community, why the Khmer Rouge should Not be seated at the United Nations as the legal representative of Cambodia. The report, entitled the “Aid and War report “was then completed and sent in 1991 to various humanitarian organisations, the United Nations, the ECC and the British Government. The report also studied the impact of the International Aid and Trade Embargo on Cambodian civilians.

During this period I was a violin student at the Royal Academy of Music, having won a scholarship there at the age of fifteen. I have been playing the violin since the age of four years old and music is part of the very fabric of my life. Although music and the arts is often considered superfluous or not serious, this article shows how very important it is. I do believe that music and dance can be some of the highest forms of human expression.

Additionally when I first began fundraising to build our school, many international organisations and governments were afraid to commit, firstly because I was very young and secondly because they thought that music was a waste of time. At that time many did not understand the importance of restoring Cambodia’s Traditional Cultural Heritage after the destruction caused during the Khmer Rouge genocide. Today there is more understanding of both the importance of music and the arts as therapy and a respect for Cambodia’s Traditional Performing Arts – now designated by UNESCO as “World Intangible Cultural Heritage”.

When I came to Cambodia in 1990 I brought my violin with me, and in between compilation of the Human Rights Aid and War report, was asked to give a concert to the students and teachers of the Music Faculty at the Royal University of Fine Arts. This I did and the Dean of the Music Faculty then asked me to return and help teach, because so many teachers had perished during the Khmer Rouge genocide between 1975-1979. I graduated from the Royal Academy in 1991 and returned to Cambodia the same year, using prize money won for the “Aid and War report” to support me. From there I began teaching violin at the University of Fine Arts.

At the time of teaching at the University of Fine Arts, I began learning Khmer instruments such as the Tro Sau Toch’ and developed a great interest in traditional music and felt deeply for my Cambodian colleagues in the traditional music department, for their struggle in trying to carry on their traditions in the face of poverty and lack of real support. Many traditional music students could not afford to come to school daily, because they had to help earn money for their parents. From here in 1993 was born a scholarship program, sponsored by the British Embassy to enable the traditional music students to attend school daily, instead of having to go out and work. Although the program was successful, I felt it did not really address a more profound need to concentrate specifically on the preservation and continuation of traditional Khmer music.

During this period with some of my Cambodian colleagues from the traditional music department we went as volunteers to the then Maryknoll sponsored rehabilitation program at Kean Klang. At the time the bridge across the river was still broken since the time the Khmer Rouge blew it up in 1975. I would go by bicycle and then by boat across the river and then by bicycle again to reach the rehabilitation centre. It is here that I learned the importance and value of music to people who had suffered great physical injury and psychological trauma. I taught the Tro Sau Toch’ instrument (a two stringed instrument played using a bow) to former soldiers who had lost their eyes, fingers and legs to mines and shrapnel explosion. Many of these men were angry and depressed, but through music I witnessed a transformation of joy and satisfaction on their faces.

Whilst in Cambodia between November 1991 and 1992, on the other side of the world, my grandmother, mother and grandfather died. Four years later my father and then my uncle died. As a young girl I took care of my mother who had become severely mentally ill. My mother then moved to Italy and died by suicide there in May 1992. At the time in Cambodia there was no proper postal system and no public telephones and few flights out of Cambodia and so the British Embassy assisted me by allowing me to use their telephone following the death of my mother.

Throughout my girlhood, Music played a vitally important role in my life. It expressed what I could not say in words and allowed a transformation into sublime joy and freedom. Earlier, difficult experiences allowed me to understand on a deeper level what other people might be experiencing and to wish to give a safe, loving environment to those who might not be internally strong and who, without appropriate help, might get lost on the path of addictions or harmful behaviours, or lost in hopeless situations driven by poverty and lack of educational opportunity.

It is a combination of all these experiences together with the experience of living in a very poor village outside Phnom Penh and being very moved by the hardship and poverty both physical and psychological of the inhabitants of the village, that inspired me to found and build a school for the conservation of Traditional Khmer music at the same time as caring for the most vulnerable children in society.