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MINIMUM SECURITY COMPOSER/CO-DIRECTOR
KEN UENO
EMAIL:
[ken at minimumsecurity dot org]
Winner of the 2006-2007 Rome Prize, Ken Ueno, is a composer and vocalist whose wide range of innovative works have been thrilling audiences around the world. Of a performance in Atlanta, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has said: “The evening was redeemed by the last work, ". . . Blood Blossoms. . .," composed last year by Boston-based Ken Ueno...a young composer worth following...” The Boston Globe remarked upon the premiere of his overtone concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, “It was the evening's far-out highlight.” Informed by his experience as an electric guitarist and overtone singer, his music fuses the culture of Japanese underground electronic music with an awareness of European modernism. In an effort to feature inherent qualities of sound such as beatings, overtones, and artifacts of production noise, Ken’s music is often amplified and uses electronics. The dramatic discourse of his music is based on the juxtaposition of extremes: visceral energy versus contemplative repose, hyperactivity versus stillness. He engages with multiple modes of music making: as a composer of acoustic works, as an electronic musician, and as an improviser specializing in extended vocal techniques.
Ken’s compositional process involves considerable research into extending instrumental possibilities. First, sounds are imagined and then “worked out” with collaborating performers to realize these sounds on their instruments. These sounds are then analyzed using software in order to derive parametric data that will inform the structure of the music. The music created in this way (which he calls “person-specific” music) has depended upon his long-term collaborations with some of the most remarkable younger generation of hyper-virtuosic performers, who have developed fluency in specific timbral control (e.g. overtones, multiphonics, microtones, etc.), as well as have the speed, the physical endurance, the patience, and, most of all, the determination to master technique unique to this music. These performers include: Wendy Richman, Tim Feeney, Hillary Zipper, Nathan Davis, Kyoko Kawamura, Brian Sacawa, Laura Carmichael, Naomi Sato, Greg Oakes, Eric Hewitt, Sam Solomon, Michael Norsworthy, Eduardo Leandro, Guy Livingston, Jocelyn Clark, Andrew Russo, Biliana Voutchkova, and Gilberto Bernardes.
Ensembles and performers who have played Ken’s music include Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Frances-Marie Uitti, the American Composers Orchestra (Whitaker Reading Session), the Cassatt Quartet, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Prism Saxophone Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Atlas Ensemble, Relâche, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, the Orkest de Ereprijs, and the So Percussion Ensemble. His music has been performed at such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MusikTriennale Köln Festival, the Muziekgebouw, the Hopkins Center, Spoleto USA, Steim, and at the Norfolk Music Festival, where he was guest composer/lecturer. Ken’s piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, continues to be featured in their repertoire, recently being performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall in England, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and aired on Italian national radio, RAI 3. Another work, Pharmakon, was performed dozens of times nationally by Eighth Blackbird during their 2001-2003 seasons.
Awards and grants that Ken has received include those from the American Academy in Rome, the Fromm Music Foundation (2), the Aaron Copland House, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording, Meet the Composer (4), the National Endowment for the Arts, the Belgian-American Education Foundation, Sonic Circuits X, First Prize in the 25th “Luigi Russolo” competition, and Harvard University. Upcoming projects include a timpani concerto for Sam Solomon, a work with live electronics for the violinist Lina Bahn, and a duo for Mayumi Miyata (sho) and Teodoro Anzellotti (accordion) commissioned by the Takefu Music Festival. Recently, he performed as soloist in the premieres of his concerto for overtone singer and orchestra with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project to wide acclaim in Boston and New York.
A former ski patrol and West Point cadet, Ken holds degrees from Berklee College of Music, Boston University, the Yale School of Music, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is a co-founder/co-director of the Minimum Security Composers Collective. As a vocalist specializing in extended techniques (overtones, multiphonics, extreme extended registers, circular breathing), he performs with the experimental improvisation group Onda and the noise/avant-rock group Blood Money.
Currently, Ken is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Electronic Music Studios at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.