Dear music lovers

Welcome to the 19th International Music Festival Phnom Penh

This year, the festival's theme is “DISCOVERIES” which is a very familiar issue in today's world. The program introduces works by composers with a view of their art beyond the respective borders, thus reflecting diverse cultures and individual intercultural experiences. Sometimes they even move from one musical environment to another, even a very different one like for example the Cambodian composers Chinary Ung and Bosba Panh.

With a rich and exciting music program, the festival does not only serve to the foreign community, but also to an increasingly enthusiastic Cambodian audience. I am particularly happy about the large number of young Cambodians who attend these concerts during the last years. These young concert visitors are a testimony of a growing middle class in Cambodia, a class with serious cosmopolitan ambitions.

Therefore, again, I warmly invite all music lovers, young and old and also those who are new to classical Western music to take full advantage of the event and its exciting program.


Anton Isselhardt, Festival Director

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the 19th International Music Festival Phnom Penh with the theme of “DISCOVERIES”.

As the world entered the modern age and global cultural interaction increased, Western musicians have gradually discovered new cultures hitherto unknown to them. It is no wonder that they have become influenced by unique elements from those or other regions of the world.

But the same has also happened not only to Western artists but to artists from any part of the world. In our global society, continuous exchange has taken place in all possible directions. Therefore I am very happy that that this year’s program again includes Cambodian composers.

The music of Chinary Ung is rooted in the traditions of his homeland, Cambodia, though the musical elements are fully reconstituted through his great personal vision, and Western training as a composer. Ung's music is a remarkable blend of cultures but a unique individual expression as well.

The young and gifted composer Bosba Panh has been in the world of performing arts world since the age of 8. An ambassador of Khmer culture, Bosba has performed with the best of Cambodia’s master musicians and dancers. Two of her new works, “The Sun Also Rises” and “Le peu de temps qu’il nous reste” will be performed for the first time in Cambodia.

May this year's festival become a new milestone in our cultural history.


Phoeurng Sackona
Minister of Culture and Fine Arts

Dear friends,

I am pleased to welcome you again to the International Music Festival in Phnom Penh, this year already in its 19th edition. As in past editions, the Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia is supporting this event, organised by the Art Plus Foundation.

This year the Festival, under the theme “Discoveries” will take us to a world of cultural interactions and mutual influences that transcend borders. The program will provide us with the opportunity to discover how the composers can transform their individual intercultural experiences into a universal work of art.

The program for this year, “Discoveries” will present to us selected works of 20th century European and Cambodian composers. I am sure that all music lovers in Phnom Penh will join this journey of discovery and enjoy the program selected for us by the Festival Director, Mr Anton Isselhardt.


Carmen Moreno
Ambassador of the European Union to Cambodia

Dear friends of music,

Welcome to the 19th International Music Festival Phnom Penh!

This year’s festival theme „Discoveries“ invites us not only to enjoy European classical music from the period of impressionism but also to discover its connections with the works of contemporary European and Cambodian composers.

If we want to make discoveries, we have to show an open mind, a sense of curiosity and occasionally the readiness to leave our comfort zone. Let us embrace this theme and let us be grateful that after years of pandemic lockdowns it has once again become possible for us to rediscover and re-experience other countries and cultures and to enjoy public life.

The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany is proud to support the 19th International Music Festival Phnom Penh. I would like to thank Mr Anton Isselhardt for the tremendous effort and creativity he put into organizing this year’s festival.

I wish the International Music Festival Phnom Penh every success. Let us together discover new pieces of music, rediscover the works of well-known masters and enjoy the programme of the International Music Festival Phnom Penh!


Stefan MESSERER
Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany
to the Kingdom of Cambodia