About



portrait by geoff robertson

Kengchakaj (Gheng/chAH /kad)

Kengchakaj is a Thai diaspora, Bangkok-born, Lenapehoking-based artist, pianist, improviser, and synthesist. His practice engages with organizing, synthesizing, and improvising sounds drawn from personal experience influenced by political complexities, ancestral soundscapes, and modes of collaboration and expression rooted in Southeast Asian tradition and lineage. His medium of expression spans acoustic piano, electronics, Southeast Asian tuned analog synthesizer, multichannel spatial audio, instrument making, and live coding—a practice of writing and executing code in real-time—utilizing technologies to produce a multisensory live performance.

Kengchakaj is a Manhattan School of Music (MM) graduate, a Fulbright Scholarship recipient, and a Gold Award Lumen Prize winner. He is a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Lincoln Center Collider Fellow, and a Y11 NEW INC member. His projects have received development funds and support from the Jerome Foundation, the Lincoln Center, NEW INC, Queens Council on the Arts, City Artist Corps, Rhizome, Processing Foundation, CultureHub, Babycastles, Eyebeam, and Institute for Electronic Arts. He is one-half of elekhlekha อีเหละเขละขละ, a collaborative duo with interdisciplinary media artist, Nitcha Tothong.


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