Czech Republic plans musical treat for Cambodian king on anniversary of diplomatic ties
Chim
Czech Republic plans musical treat for Cambodian king on anniversary of
diplomatic ties
AP
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni will
receive a special tribute from his former piano teacher, from the Czech
Republic, when the two countries mark the 50th anniversary of
diplomatic ties this week, a Czech diplomat said Thursday.
Anna Hujeckova, 78, who taught Sihamoni piano when he was a student at
the National Conservatory in Prague in the 1960s, "will play His
Majesty's favorite Czech folk songs" during Saturday's ceremony at the
Chaktomouk Theater on the bank of the Tonle Sap river in Phnom Penh,
Ambassador Jiri Sitler said.
Sihamoni, an art-lover, spent much of his youth in the former
Czechoslovakia where he attended school and studied European ballet.
"The event is very significant for Czech-Cambodian relations," Sitler
said in an e-mail from Bangkok, Thailand, where he is based.
He said the event will also feature an exhibition of seven original
drawings from 1905 by Czech artist Frantisek Kupka, a world-famous
abstract painter who died in 1957.
A book containing Kupka's 107 drawings "Man and Earth," which costs
more than US$4,000 (3,357), will also be presented to Sihamoni, he
added.
"It would be covered by Khmer silk, adorned with silver-plates with the
royal emblem and the inscription "Gift of the Czech Nation to His
Majesty the King of Cambodia Norodom Sihamoni," and placed in a
hand-carved wooden box, he said.
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03/09/06 06:03 EST