Celebrated Tibetan Folk Singer Techung

Tibetan opera comes alive when the celebrated Tibetan folk and freedom singer Techung performs at the Rubin.

The program includes Pema Woeber, depicting the life story of Guru Padmasambhava, also known as the Second Buddha, in two different traditional performance styles: Ache Lhamo, in the style of Tibetan opera, and Lama Mani, in the tradition of the Tibetan traveling storyteller. Techung, who performs vocals, dramyen (Tibetan lute), piwan (Tibetan fiddle) and Tibetan drum learned the art form from his elders when he was a child growing up in India.

Traditionally, Tibetan opera is performed in open air and runs for an entire day. This concert is a unique opportunity to hear these songs in a concert setting, utilizing multimedia and other contemporary storytelling tools.

The evening begins with a tour of the exhibition The Second Buddha: Master of Time led by curator Elena Pakhoutova at 6:15 PM.

About the Speaker

Techung is a Tibetan folk and freedom singer. He is a recipient of New York State’s Council For the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts’ 2018 Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Arts.

Techungs’s career demonstrates his commitment to Tibetan music and his ability to address both secular and sacred aspects of the culture. This is the result of his classical training as well as his experience as a child growing up as a Tibetan exile in India in the 1960s and 1970s. His music captures the recognizable traditional soundscapes of Tibet and the deep longings of a people living for decades in exile, but it is also informed by the present, and includes collaborations with musicians from other traditions and heritages. He understands music as a living art and tradition.

After moving to the United States, he co-founded the San Francisco-based Chaksampa Tibetan Dance & Opera Company in 1989, which has performed Tibetan music, dance, and opera at various musical festivals and at the Carnegie Hall in New York.

With the goal of reaching Tibetan children, Techung released his first Tibetan children’s music album Semshae – Heart Songs, in 2010. This is one of the first Tibetan children’s music CDs and is the result of seven years of research and composition. The primary goal of the project is to ensure that the Tibetan culture of compassion is preserved through children’s music. You can listen and buy the album here.

At the 2018 Tibet House annual benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, Techung collaborated with composer Philip Glass who described him as , “a man of such talent representing the culture of this exiled and oppressed community.”

Techung is currently collaborating with LA composer Robert Lydecker on music for the upcoming Marvel Series “Iron Fist.”

Image Credit

Techung with Drumnyen photo by Sonam Zoksang