2017 House Programs A Requiem for Cambodia: Bangsokol | Page 13

TRENT WALKER
Librettist GIDEON OBARZANEK
Director of Staging ANDREW CYR
Music Director, Conductor
Trent Walker is a young scholar
of Southeast Asian Buddhist
music. Trained in jazz and
Western classical music, Trent
spent several years in Cambodia
studying with vocal masters
Prum Ut, Koet Ran, and Yan Borin
while working for Cambodian
Living Arts. A former Buddhist
novice monk, Trent regularly
performs and gives lectures on
the Cambodian Dharma song
(smot) tradition of Buddhist
chant. At present Trent is a Ph.D.
student in Buddhist Studies at the
University of California, Berkeley,
researching Southeast Asian
Buddhist liturgies in Khmer, Lao,
Pali and Thai. Gideon Obarzanek is a director,
playwright and choreographer.
Gideon is also Melbourne
Festival’s Artistic Associate, Chair
of the Melbourne Fringe and
board member of Critical Path—
a choreographic research centre
based in Sydney. In 1995 Gideon
founded the Australian dance
company Chunky Move and was
CEO and Artistic Director until
2012. Under Gideon’s leadership
the company established
itself as one of the country’s
most innovative, awarded and
internationally recognized
performing arts companies.
Gideon’s awards include Best
Short Documentary for Dance
Like Your Old Man (Melbourne
International Film Festival,
Cinedans Festival), a New York
Bessie award for outstanding
choreography and creation, and
Australian Helpmann Awards for
Glow and Mortal Engine. Grammy-nominated conductor
Andrew Cyr, a “prominent
influence in the world of newly
emerging music” (Washington
Post) is a leader in the rapidly
growing contemporary music
scene. Andrew founded the
Metropolis Ensemble in 2006,
built on a passion for creating
new platforms for outstanding
emerging composers and
performing artists. Andrew’s
work as conductor has been
described by Esa-Pekka Salonen
“precise, rhythmically incisive
and fluid. Andrew made complex
new pieces sound natural
and organic.” In addition to
championing new work from the
next generation of composers,
Andrew also made conducting
debuts with The Colorado
Symphony in 2013 and led the
American Premiere of a new
opera by David Bruce at New
Victory Theatre.