Arn Chorn-Pond

Arn Chorn-Pond is a Cambodian musician, human rights activist, and a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. He is an advocate for the healing and transformative power of the arts, and especially music. In 1998 he founded the Cambodian Master Performers Program, which grew into Cambodian Living Arts.

The organization’s original mission was to revive the endangered traditional performing arts in Cambodia by locating former masters or trained professional musicians and helping them to pass on their skills and knowledge to the next generation.[25] Cambodian Living Arts has since expanded its scope of programming to include scholarships, fellowships, workshops, training, commissions, arts education, and a cultural enterprise that provides enriching job opportunities to Cambodian performing artists.

Among other honors, Arn Chorn-Pond was one of the first recipients of the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1988. He has received the 1991 Amnesty International Human Rights Award, the 1993 Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize, and the 1996 Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Citizen Award.