Daran Kravanh was born in Cambodia and arrived as a refugee in the US in 1988. He credits his survival of what the United Nations declared, “the largest per capita loss of lie in the 20th century” with his ability to play the accordion. This is ironic in that 90% of all artists and musicians were executed.
This story has been written in a book by Bree Lafreniere titled, “The Accordion,” which begins, “I cannot tell you how or why I survived, I do not know myself. But it is like this: love and music and memory and invisible hands, and something that comes out of the society of the living and the dead for which there are no words.”
Daran currently works as a Southeast Asian Youth Program Coordinator and is studying for his BA in Sociology. He will play traditional Cambodian songs with four other musicians using traditional instruments.
