Chinary Ung
Ung Chinary Chinary • Illustration — Ung speaking with the Voice of America in 2020 Chinary Ung (pron) (born November 24, 1942, in Takéo, Cambodia) is a composer currently living in California, United States.
Chinary Ung

VOA/Chetra Chap · VOA Cambodian service · Public domain
- Born
- 1942 · Takéo.
- Nationality
- Cambodia · United States
- Occupation
- composer · music educator
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship · Grawemeyer Awards · Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition · Arts and Letters Award in Music
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Documentary summary
Ung Chinary Chinary • Illustration — Ung speaking with the Voice of America in 2020 Chinary Ung (pron) (born November 24, 1942, in Takéo, Cambodia) is a composer currently living in California, United States.
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Note VALÉORINE
Chinary Ung (born 1942) is a composer and music educator and a national of Cambodia and the United States. The composer was born in Takéo. Chinary Ung worked for University of California, San Diego and worked in San Diego. The composer received Arts and Letters Award in Music, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition and Grawemeyer Awards, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 30 September 2026
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wikidata · Q5100122 · wikipedia · Chinary Ung
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Career
Career
After arriving in the US in 1965 to study clarinet, he turned to composition studies with Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky, receiving a Doctor of Musical Arts from Columbia University in 1974. In 1988, he became the first American to win the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for musical composition. Additionally, he received the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, as well as awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Asia Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts. In October 2007 the Del Sol String Quartet was invited to premiere the composer's Spiral X playing the Library of Congress' collection of Stradivarius instruments. Ung taught music at Northern Illinois University, Connecticut College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Arizona State University, before being appointed to the faculty at the University of California, San Diego. In 2013, UC San Diego promoted Ung to the rank of Distinguished Professor. Ung's music is published by C. F. Peters Corporation and his music is recorded on New World Records, Bridge Records, Cambria, London Records, Other Minds, Oodiscs, Nami Records, Kojima Records, Albany Records, Norton Recordings, Composers Recording Incorporated, Folkways Records, and Koch International.
Selected list of works
Selected list of works
• 1970 – Tall Wind, for soprano and chamber ensemble • 1974 – Mohori, for soprano and chamber ensemble • 1980 – Khse Buon, for solo cello or viola • 1985 – Child Song, for alto flute, viola, harp • 1986 – Inner Voices, for orchestra • 1987 – Spiral, for cello, piano, and percussion • 1989 – Spiral II, for soprano, tuba, and piano • 1990 – Grand Spiral: Desert Flowers Bloom, for symphonic band • 1992 – Spiral VI, for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano • 1995 – Antiphonal Spirals, for orchestra • 1997 – Seven Mirrors, for solo piano
Awards
• University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition (1989) for Inner Voices • Friedheim Award (1989) for Spiral • American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1981, 1988) • John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award from the Asian Cultural Council (2014) • American Academy of Arts and Letters (2020) • Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Nomination (2025) for Rebirth of Apsara
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.បុស្បា ប៉ាន់ វិលមកកាន់មហោស្រពតន្ដ្រីជាមួយនឹងនិស្សិតបរទេស ១៤ រូប. Post Khmer. July 12, 2016.
- 2.1989- Chinary Ung.
- 3.The San Diego Union-Tribune - San Diego, California & National News. www.utsandiego.com.
- 4.Varga, George. Pulitzer Prize, Library of Congress induction and Grammy nomination cap banner year for San Diego musicians. The San Diego Union-Tribune. December 6, 2020.
- 5.Izzies Announced. April 15, 2025.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
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