Master musician Bun Loeung featured in this September 2006 edition of Giving Strength magazine published by the Bush foundation. He received the Bush Artist fellowship from the Bush Foundation in 2006. (Please click on the picture to zoom in)Thu, 31 May 2007
UPI
ST. PAUL, Minn., May 31 Bun Loeung, a master Cambodian musician who fled his country after the Communist takeover in the 1970s, has died at 78.
Loeung, who lived in St. Paul, Minn., since 1982, died May 24 of complications from heart surgery, the Star Tribune reported Thursday. He is survived by his wife Sophea Tep, two daughters and one son.
Loeung, best known for playing a hammered dulcimer, performed traditional Cambodian music at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, at universities across the United States and at Cambodian ceremonies.
His talent attracted the attention of musicians from other genres, as well, including Willie Murphy, who produced an album of Loeung's group, the New International Trio, which played a fusion of Cambodian, Irish and American music, the newspaper said.
His traditional Cambodian band was called Light From Heaven, which won a Just Plain Folks Music Award in the best ethnic/world category in Hollywood.
Dick Hensold said fellow musicians' jaws would drop because Lueong played so fast without looking at the instrument. He said they would ask "'Why don't you look at the instrument?' and Loeung said, 'You have to be able to smile at the audience.' He just smoked them all."
Loeung, who lived in St. Paul, Minn., since 1982, died May 24 of complications from heart surgery, the Star Tribune reported Thursday. He is survived by his wife Sophea Tep, two daughters and one son.
Loeung, best known for playing a hammered dulcimer, performed traditional Cambodian music at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, at universities across the United States and at Cambodian ceremonies.
His talent attracted the attention of musicians from other genres, as well, including Willie Murphy, who produced an album of Loeung's group, the New International Trio, which played a fusion of Cambodian, Irish and American music, the newspaper said.
His traditional Cambodian band was called Light From Heaven, which won a Just Plain Folks Music Award in the best ethnic/world category in Hollywood.
Dick Hensold said fellow musicians' jaws would drop because Lueong played so fast without looking at the instrument. He said they would ask "'Why don't you look at the instrument?' and Loeung said, 'You have to be able to smile at the audience.' He just smoked them all."
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