Cambodian-born composer Chinary Ung is the recipient of numerous honors from The Academy of Arts and Letters, the Meet the Composer/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program and The National Endowment for the Arts, among others. Ung was also the first American to receive the international Grawemeyer Award for his orchestral tone poem Inner Voices.
The Joyce Award supported the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s commissioning and presentation of a new work for a chamber orchestra by Ung. The work will be premiered in conjunction with the St. Paul Hmong community’s annual New Year celebration. St. Paul is home to the nation’s largest urban concentration of Hmong people.
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, in its 45th season, is the nation’s only full-time professional chamber orchestra, and is widely regarded as one of the finest chamber orchestras in the world. Its 35 virtuoso musicians present more than 150 concerts and educational programs each year and tour nationally and internationally, including performances in premier venues in Europe, Asia and South America.