https://kenueno.com Ken Ueno Fri, 11 Dec 2020 22:21:59 +0000 https://kenueno.com en https://kenueno.com/Homepage-Images Tue, 13 Oct 2020 21:29:13 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Homepage-Images https://kenueno.com/About-Block Wed, 21 Oct 2020 17:11:27 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/About-Block ABOUT (READ MORE︎︎︎) KEN UENO<img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5f834e57412d2153baa972cb0dd96ba39f23b8ce3d8d666144ea4023dd36d889/KenUeno_press06-WEB.jpg" data-mid="87856345" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5f834e57412d2153baa972cb0dd96ba39f23b8ce3d8d666144ea4023dd36d889/KenUeno_press06-WEB.jpg" /> is a composer<img width="800" height="600" width_o="800" height_o="600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/557e029c3c258822fe1a82b092bd2c4c1bf06dbd2de676958958357a40c92d15/home-floatingnotes.png" data-mid="86863021" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/557e029c3c258822fe1a82b092bd2c4c1bf06dbd2de676958958357a40c92d15/home-floatingnotes.png" />, vocalist<img width="800" height="477" width_o="800" height_o="477" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1021c2dd49daad23a35a7820e0d2174ccd5d03e7fbc936aece51679542f514da/home-megaphone.png" data-mid="86859811" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/1021c2dd49daad23a35a7820e0d2174ccd5d03e7fbc936aece51679542f514da/home-megaphone.png" /> and sound artist<img width="800" height="1008" width_o="800" height_o="1008" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/51479f3a2ebcd41deb462be2cc74c2a96e194b4c49f86e157e8ba43a84c535b0/home-memorytemple.jpg" data-mid="86860865" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/51479f3a2ebcd41deb462be2cc74c2a96e194b4c49f86e157e8ba43a84c535b0/home-memorytemple.jpg" /> who is currently a Professor at UC Berkeley<img width="1000" height="1000" width_o="1000" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2d6d8597aa2aabd9a77a7d132722693b7ee10f6e23af7afb82104aa4737fbe38/UCBerkeley_logo-bw.png" data-mid="86860549" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2d6d8597aa2aabd9a77a7d132722693b7ee10f6e23af7afb82104aa4737fbe38/UCBerkeley_logo-bw.png" />. He is a recipient of a number of grants, awards and fellowships including those from the American Academy in Rome AA Rome<img width="1000" height="1000" width_o="1000" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e02a6a89760106cf326ac49e37091cd2f318d7a5aec8d90db17ac6c8907a00e4/AARome_logo-transparent.png" data-mid="86878689" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e02a6a89760106cf326ac49e37091cd2f318d7a5aec8d90db17ac6c8907a00e4/AARome_logo-transparent.png" /> and the American Academy in Berlin AA Berlin<img width="1000" height="1000" width_o="1000" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/483121771d82eccdf91076568f4570a58d620ce2c9e77eb789fb29e7b7e98a12/AABerlin_logo-transparent.png" data-mid="86878724" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/483121771d82eccdf91076568f4570a58d620ce2c9e77eb789fb29e7b7e98a12/AABerlin_logo-transparent.png" />, among others. https://kenueno.com/Works-Block Wed, 14 Oct 2020 21:30:33 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Works-Block MUSIC (VIEW ALL︎︎︎)AND INSTALLATIONS (VIEW ALL︎︎︎) COMPOSITIONS Opera, Orchestral/Large Ensemble, Chamber, Solo, Vocal, Works for Self PROGRAM NOTES Ghosts of Ancient Hurricanes (2019), History of Breath (2019), And the Seven Angels Rejoiced (2018), Quentin (2018), Babbling (2016), Fortress Brass (2016), Future Lilacs (2016), Rapt Afterness (2016), Fanfares for the Apocalypse (2015), Zetsu (2015), Gallo (2014), Hapax Legomenon (2014), Peradam (2012), Song for Sendai (2011), Wallace (2011), I pulse, when you breathe (2008), On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis (2008), Disabitato (2007), Talus (2007), Ga–uah Chon Ch’Cha (Song of Rapture) (2006), Sabinium (2006), a thick band of gray, a line that elides the end of day into the beginning of night (2005), A Book of Months (2005), Kaze-no-Oka (2005), Love requited but unfulfilled, under the stars, Sukkeien Garden, Hiroshima, Sunday, August 4, 1945, 12 hours before the bomb (2005) (MORE NOTES︎︎︎) INSTALLATIONS Breath Cloud (2014), Jericho Mouth (2014), Liquid Lucretius (2013), Memory Temple (2011), Wallace (2011), Nipper (2011) https://kenueno.com/Writings-Block Wed, 14 Oct 2020 22:10:17 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Writings-Block WRITINGS (VIEW ALL︎︎︎) ARTICLES (ABOUT)︎︎︎ ARTICLES (BY)︎︎︎ POEMS︎︎︎ https://kenueno.com/Photography-Block Wed, 14 Oct 2020 21:46:52 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Photography-Block PHOTOGRAPHY(VIEW ALL︎︎︎) <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c1240c7ca83a3896e9054e424bcef5548ffcf224d661dfe3e61d6d81f4f57534/PerformancePhotos-GuangzhouFlaneur1.jpg" data-mid="88774729" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c1240c7ca83a3896e9054e424bcef5548ffcf224d661dfe3e61d6d81f4f57534/PerformancePhotos-GuangzhouFlaneur1.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="1633" width_o="1000" height_o="1633" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7f9ecd778f511fdfe728aac643a6e1244169996469308a3453e3b0e74e3da730/PerformancePhotos-JerichoMouth1.jpg" data-mid="88774731" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7f9ecd778f511fdfe728aac643a6e1244169996469308a3453e3b0e74e3da730/PerformancePhotos-JerichoMouth1.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bf358f5b33e3ffe62a06b770c47bf68b9d365f04e061f8ab0d6867cd8c9cc804/PerformancePhotos-EMPAC3.JPG" data-mid="88774733" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bf358f5b33e3ffe62a06b770c47bf68b9d365f04e061f8ab0d6867cd8c9cc804/PerformancePhotos-EMPAC3.JPG" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2e2577c3e60c28c34dc7f3fadb7ffcbf6673e0565340972c5ac5762071c30260/PerformancePhotos-EMPAC2.JPG" data-mid="88774732" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2e2577c3e60c28c34dc7f3fadb7ffcbf6673e0565340972c5ac5762071c30260/PerformancePhotos-EMPAC2.JPG" /> <img width="2000" height="1329" width_o="2000" height_o="1329" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9bef1644b027ee766cfbfce3e74cc24f689730b9ef52507912bb19b70ff3ffdc/PerformancePhotos-Thailand_Concerto.jpg" data-mid="88774737" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9bef1644b027ee766cfbfce3e74cc24f689730b9ef52507912bb19b70ff3ffdc/PerformancePhotos-Thailand_Concerto.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f804b9f4d06c44a49f81f632d6cdbbaa13a98d326f358f9a3f5247625ea88fa/PersonalPhotography-KirRoyalatDeuxMagots9.jpg" data-mid="88774797" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f804b9f4d06c44a49f81f632d6cdbbaa13a98d326f358f9a3f5247625ea88fa/PersonalPhotography-KirRoyalatDeuxMagots9.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a211938e75cea61a60c55e41e5fad011da8115b7ca5ed9bac2067d4bd504dafc/PersonalPhotography-AlaskaWaterFlickers.jpg" data-mid="88774745" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a211938e75cea61a60c55e41e5fad011da8115b7ca5ed9bac2067d4bd504dafc/PersonalPhotography-AlaskaWaterFlickers.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1330" width_o="2000" height_o="1330" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ab7aa19ab10d6dce8d6f15b7139a3618b91ab5b0b2747aee81128a35bc485db4/PersonalPhotography04.jpg" data-mid="88774761" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ab7aa19ab10d6dce8d6f15b7139a3618b91ab5b0b2747aee81128a35bc485db4/PersonalPhotography04.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e09824f8c3a985eaab56877b5019ee38993e534922fcae26ab9734f2a4b6339e/PersonalPhotography14.jpg" data-mid="88774776" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e09824f8c3a985eaab56877b5019ee38993e534922fcae26ab9734f2a4b6339e/PersonalPhotography14.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/18c4e97dc6692f38f12b0e09f5083536576f0e3805ea39984c2646b01e3ad117/PersonalPhotography29.jpg" data-mid="88774763" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/18c4e97dc6692f38f12b0e09f5083536576f0e3805ea39984c2646b01e3ad117/PersonalPhotography29.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2667" width_o="2000" height_o="2667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d0b89d0ee2615474216a00b50e8d746c7498da6102a02bbc73492e5903027857/PersonalPhotography31.jpg" data-mid="88774770" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d0b89d0ee2615474216a00b50e8d746c7498da6102a02bbc73492e5903027857/PersonalPhotography31.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1500" width_o="2000" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc2d1e5facc32833f10d3040ceb5ba288cc3c73e1c9c85f866ffeb32b5dc7a08/PersonalPhotography23.jpg" data-mid="88774766" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dc2d1e5facc32833f10d3040ceb5ba288cc3c73e1c9c85f866ffeb32b5dc7a08/PersonalPhotography23.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2667" width_o="2000" height_o="2667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e342a9f2657dcb3f72d0fb8c7e6cf6b6a378b0066662d78614d9ece97b698d79/PersonalPhotography36.jpg" data-mid="88774772" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e342a9f2657dcb3f72d0fb8c7e6cf6b6a378b0066662d78614d9ece97b698d79/PersonalPhotography36.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1330" width_o="2000" height_o="1330" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2230fec50a7ab1bd91d36a8188891a6d7c73dbe3e070cdc2a49815912fff2ef7/PersonalPhotography38.jpg" data-mid="88774767" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2230fec50a7ab1bd91d36a8188891a6d7c73dbe3e070cdc2a49815912fff2ef7/PersonalPhotography38.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="3008" width_o="2000" height_o="3008" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ea68f41b4cd35a79df50a58998a3fd5f66f1d099f40cd4f196cd5ad4733b6a6b/PersonalPhotography01.jpg" data-mid="88774756" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ea68f41b4cd35a79df50a58998a3fd5f66f1d099f40cd4f196cd5ad4733b6a6b/PersonalPhotography01.jpg" /> https://kenueno.com/Short-Biography Wed, 21 Oct 2020 18:45:18 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Short-Biography SHORT BIOGRAPHY <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5f834e57412d2153baa972cb0dd96ba39f23b8ce3d8d666144ea4023dd36d889/KenUeno_press06-WEB.jpg" data-mid="87855998" border="0" data-scale="65" data-no-zoom src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5f834e57412d2153baa972cb0dd96ba39f23b8ce3d8d666144ea4023dd36d889/KenUeno_press06-WEB.jpg" /> Press Photos (Link︎︎︎) A recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize, Ken Ueno (b. 1970), is a composer/vocalist/sound artist who is currently a Professor at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor Chair in Music. Ensembles and performers who have played Ken’s music include Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky, Mayumi Miyata, Teodoro Anzellotti, Aki Takahashi, Wendy Richman, Greg Oakes, BMOP, Alarm Will Sound, Steve Schick and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Nieuw Ensemble, and Frances-Marie Uitti. His music has been performed at such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MusikTriennale Köln Festival, the Muziekgebouw, Ars Musica, Warsaw Autumn, Other Minds, the Hopkins Center, Spoleto USA, Steim, and at the Norfolk Music Festival. Ken’s piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, was featured in their repertoire for over ten years, with performances at such venues as Queen Elizabeth Hall in England, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and was aired on Italian national radio, RAI 3. Another work, Pharmakon, was performed dozens of times nationally by Eighth Blackbird during their 2001-2003 seasons. A portrait concert of Ken’s was featured on MaerzMusik in Berlin in 2011. In 2012, he was a featured artist on Other Minds 17. In 2014, Frances-Mairie Uitti and the Boston Modern Orchestra premiered his concerto for two-bow cello and orchestra, and Guerilla Opera premiered a run of his chamber opera, Gallo, to critical acclaim. He has performed as soloist in his vocal concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in New York and Boston, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Lithuanian National Symphony, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and with orchestras in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and California. Ken holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. A monograph CD of three orchestral concertos was released on the Bmop/sound label. His bio appears in The Grove Dictionary of American Music. https://kenueno.com/Full-Biography Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:34:33 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Full-Biography FULL BIOGRAPHY <img width="2400" height="1160" width_o="2400" height_o="1160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2beeae3e08d58d29e605d3c2a20721b19fbe647e6699b8ac3a736c41ee2a8087/KenUeno_fullbio.jpg" data-mid="88821889" border="0" data-no-zoom="true" alt="(Photo: Nanamu Hamamoto)" data-caption="(Photo: Nanamu Hamamoto)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2beeae3e08d58d29e605d3c2a20721b19fbe647e6699b8ac3a736c41ee2a8087/KenUeno_fullbio.jpg" /> Ken Ueno (b. 1970), is a composer, vocalist, improviser, and sound artist. His music celebrates artistic possibilities which are liberated through a Whitmanesque consideration of the embodied practice of unique musical personalities. Much of Ueno’s music is “person-specific” wherein the intricacies of performance practice are brought into focus in the technical achievements of a specific individual fused, inextricably, with that performer’s aura. In an increasingly digitized world, “person-specificity” takes a stand against the forces that render all of us anonymous. It also runs counter to the neo-colonial tradition of transportability in Western Classical music. As an outsider, Ueno has been drawn to sounds that have been overlooked or denied. His artistic mission is to push the boundaries of perception and challenge traditional paradigms of beauty. Breath is at the ontological center of Ueno’s art practice as a vocalist specializing in extended techniques (overtones, throat-singing, multiphonics, extreme registers, circular singing), and taking a cue from Robert Hass’ thesis that “poetry is: a physical structure of the actual breath of a given emotion,” his practice transposes this notion into music through physical valence. Ueno believes that physical gestures are, indeed, mapped to given emotions. When we hear the operatic tenor, Pavarotti, sing a high C and linger there for tens of seconds, he not only suspends his breath, but, we, too, as listeners, suspend our breath. Physio-valence directs our bodies to vivify, in real time, the suspension of our breath in parallel with the music to which we are listening. In his music, through circular breathing, that Pavarottian lingering moment is expanded to minutes, not seconds. The phenomenological reading of that lingering exacerbates traditional modes of analysis in terms of structural hearing.&nbsp; Ken Ueno performing ‘TARD at MATA 2018 with Du Yun, Matt Evans, and Amy Garapic. More Info (LINK︎︎︎) Ueno employs the megaphone as a prosthetic extension of his voice. Armed with a megaphone, he is mobile and able to incorporate the narrative of movement in space, direct his sound in different directions, at different structural materials and angles, and to play with various lengths of echoes. And articulating the resonant frequencies of different locations in a space, means that architecture, too, can be read as harmonic structure (in this way, Ueno’s music sonically articulates architecture – in his installations, he “instrumentalizes” architecture). Ueno has developed an array of vocal techniques specific to the megaphone. For example, a kind of slap tongue whose attack is followed by a multiphonic drone shaped by changing the vowel shapes within his mouth. The shapes of these bespoke vowels, however, do not exist in any language. He has also learned to control the aperture of the multiphonic (or bandwidth) with the shape of his mouth, and can also sing in counterpoint or in augmentation with the shaped feedback multiphonic by humming into his nasal cavity. There are other techniques which involve ingressive singing, which, in alternation with exhaled techniques, allows me to circular-breathe. Ensembles and performers who have played Ueno’s music include Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky, Frances-Marie Uitti, Mayumi Miyata, Teodoro Anzellotti, Aki Takahashi, Alarm Will Sound, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Steve Schick and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Wendy Richman, Greg Oakes, Gabby Diaz, Anne Lanzilotti, Vincent Daoud, Karen Yu, Dan Lippel, Aaron Larget-Caplan, Sound Icon, Alia Musica Pittsburgh, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Lithuanian National Symphony, the Paul Dresher Ensemble (with Amy X Neuburg), the Nieuw Ensemble, Neue Vocalisolisten, , the Del Sol String Quartet, Vincent Royer, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the American Composers Orchestra (Whitaker Reading Session), the Cassatt Quartet, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Prism Saxophone Quartet, the Atlas Ensemble, Relâche, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, the Orkest de Ereprijs, and the So Percussion Ensemble. <img src="https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/GdFqd-xCvnLi3K_Uwd05Y2U0jeQ=/1440x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/LLAXJTHHOEI6HB7NZT6LONEBIY.jpg" width="200px"> ALIANA DE LA GUARDIA, LEFT, AND DOUGLAS DODSON IN THE GUERILLA OPERA PRODUCTION OF KEN UENO’S CHAMBER OPERA&nbsp;GALLO. (PHOTO: LIZ LINDER) MORE INFO (LINK︎︎︎) Ueno’s music has been performed at prestigious venues around the world including Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MusikTriennale Köln Festival, Ars Musica, Warsaw Autumn, the GAIDA festival, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the Muziekgebouw, the Hopkins Center, Spoleto USA, and Steim. He has been the featured guest composer at the Takefu International Music Festival, the Norfolk Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Pacific Rim Festival, the Intégrales New Music Festival, and the MANCA Festival. Ueno’s piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, was featured in their repertoire for over ten years, with performances at such venues as Queen Elizabeth Hall in England, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and was aired on Italian national radio, RAI 3. Another work, Pharmakon, was performed dozens of times nationally by Eighth Blackbird during their 2001-2003 seasons. A portrait concert of Ueno’s was featured on MaerzMusik in Berlin in 2011. In 2012, he was a featured artist on Other Minds 17. In 2014, Frances-Mairie Uitti and the Boston Modern Orchestra premiered his concerto for two-bow cello and orchestra this past January, and Guerilla Opera premiered a run of his chamber opera, Gallo, to critical acclaim. He has performed as soloist in his vocal concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in New York and Boston, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Lithuanian National Symphony, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and with orchestras in North Carolina, California, Stony Brook, and Pittsburgh. During two weeks in the fall of 2019, he was in residence at the Osage Gallery in Hong Kong to present installations, installations performances, concerts, and take part in a panel discussion on his works at Hong Kong University. He also curated a team of local stars with whom he performed at Osage. Awards, grants, and fellowships that Ueno has received include those from the American Academy in Rome, the American Academy in Berlin, Civitella Rainieri, the Townsend Center, the Mellon Foundation, the Fromm Music Foundation (2), New Music USA (4), the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Aaron Copland House, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording, Meet the Composer (6), the National Endowment for the Arts, the Belgian-American Education Foundation, and Harvard University. He has twice received support from the Fromm Foundation to support orchestral commissions. He has also received support from the MAP Fund twice – for an evening-long work for Community MusicWorks and himself as vocalist, and for a work for the combined forces of the Prism Saxophone Quartet and the Partch Ensemble. A monograph CD of three of his concertos was released on the Bmop/sound label. In the Spring of 2017, he was a Mellon Visiting Artist at the Susan and Donald Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College. As a vocalist/improviser, Ueno has collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Joey Baron, Ikue Mori, Robyn Schulkowsky, Joan Jeanrenaud, Pascal Contet, Gene Coleman, Tyshawn Sorey, David Wessel, Robin Hayward, John Kelly, Jorrit Dykstra, Kevork Mourad, Gilberto Bernardes, Hans Tutschku, James Coleman, and Vic Rawlings amongst others. Ueno’s ongoing performance projects include collaborations with DJ Sniff, Kung Chi Shing, Tim Feeney, Matt Ingalls, and Du Yun. As a sound artist, Ueno collaborates with visual artists, architects, and video artists to create unique cross-disciplinary art works. For the artist, Angela Bulloch, he created several audio installations (driven with custom software), which provide audio input that affect the way her mechanical drawing machine sculptures draw. These works have been exhibited at Art Basel as well as at Angela’s solo exhibition at the Wolfsburg Castle. In collaborating with the architect, Patrick Tighe, Ueno created a custom software-driven 8-channel sound installation that provided the sonic environment for Tighe’s robotically carved foam construction. Working with the landscape architect, Jose Parral, he collaborated on videos, interactive video installations, and a multi-room intervention at the art space Rialto, in Rome, Italy. In 2013, Ueno created a 24-channel audio installation, Liquid Lucretius, which was installed at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City for two months. Breath Cloud, a sound installation with 90-speakers was commissioned and installed at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in May, 2014. 2014 also saw the opening of his collaboration with the architect, Thomas Tsang, at the Inside-Out Museum in Beijing. The software-driven work sonically activates a stairwell as a resonant chamber, which leads to a sonic aperture with an opening outside the building, effectively turning the building into a large wind instrument. More recent sound installations have been commissioned by the RISD Art Museum and the Bi-City Bienniale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen, China. More recently, he has created installation performances at galleries in Guangzhou, and spaces in Taiwan, and Savannah, GA (commissioned by the Telfair Museum). <img width="800" height="1008" width_o="800" height_o="1008" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/51479f3a2ebcd41deb462be2cc74c2a96e194b4c49f86e157e8ba43a84c535b0/home-memorytemple.jpg" data-mid="88822303" border="0" data-scale="50" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/51479f3a2ebcd41deb462be2cc74c2a96e194b4c49f86e157e8ba43a84c535b0/home-memorytemple.jpg" /> Ken collaborated with architect Patrick Tighe on Memory Temple, a custom software-driven sound installation at SCI-ArC. (PHOTO: TIGHE ARCHITECTURE) More Info(Link︎︎︎) Ueno is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is currently the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor in Music. He has been invited to present lectures on his music at over a hundred peer institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, Peabody, Stanford, Northwestern, USC, UCLA, Seoul National University, Beijing Central Conservatory, the University of Hong Kong, the Geneva Conservatory, and the Paris Conservatory. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and an M.M.A. from the Yale School of Music, and his bio appears in The Grove Dictionary of American Music. https://kenueno.com/Biography-Press-Photos Tue, 20 Oct 2020 18:50:56 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Biography-Press-Photos PRESS PHOTOS <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b14956d8fb42fafff19ac36163d14613adbf755508089227c0bb010366f08cd4/KenUeno_press06-WEB.jpg" data-mid="87853513" border="0" data-scale="50" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b14956d8fb42fafff19ac36163d14613adbf755508089227c0bb010366f08cd4/KenUeno_press06-WEB.jpg" /> WEB (2000 x 1333 pixels) Download︎︎︎ PRINT (15 x 10 inches) Download︎︎︎ PHOTO CREDITEMPAC/Mick Bello <img width="1500" height="2000" width_o="1500" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7cb678bd9c28127176ba03beb1cb6cef0a39029575ee17624aa064dd93667e4/KenUeno_press01-WEB.jpg" data-mid="86183554" border="0" data-scale="40" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7cb678bd9c28127176ba03beb1cb6cef0a39029575ee17624aa064dd93667e4/KenUeno_press01-WEB.jpg" /> WEB (1500 x 2000 pixels) Download︎︎︎PRINT (5 x 6.67 inches) Download︎︎︎ PHOTO CREDITNathan Davis <img width="1620" height="1080" width_o="1620" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d2057ed69f2c623597f04fc945b4f84d2ad61e6811456f12e76b843f8df29b5c/KenUeno_press02_WEB.jpg" data-mid="87853511" border="0" data-scale="50" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d2057ed69f2c623597f04fc945b4f84d2ad61e6811456f12e76b843f8df29b5c/KenUeno_press02_WEB.jpg" /> WEB (1620 x 1080 pixels) Download︎︎︎PRINT (5.4 x 3.6 inches) Download︎︎︎ PHOTO CREDITNanamu Hamamoto <img width="2000" height="2667" width_o="2000" height_o="2667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/900f68c45675470515f3a04dd7c86dd244d1d995faa75256c5392b58594a1261/KenUeno_press03-WEB.jpg" data-mid="86183556" border="0" data-scale="40" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/900f68c45675470515f3a04dd7c86dd244d1d995faa75256c5392b58594a1261/KenUeno_press03-WEB.jpg" /> WEB (2000 x 2667 pixels) Download︎︎︎PRINT (11.5 x 15.3 inches) Download︎︎︎ PHOTO CREDITPeter Gannushkin <img width="2000" height="3000" width_o="2000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6051c3cc7bdba96bffac9ba5512d03c7c0dabc2204e964eee3792fb3cc390902/KenUeno_press04-WEB.jpg" data-mid="86183557" border="0" data-scale="40" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6051c3cc7bdba96bffac9ba5512d03c7c0dabc2204e964eee3792fb3cc390902/KenUeno_press04-WEB.jpg" /> WEB (2000 x 3000 pixels) Download︎︎︎PRINT (11 x 16.5 inches) Download︎︎︎ PHOTO CREDITAnnette Hornischer <img width="2000" height="3000" width_o="2000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f59d9dfd8ec0e1d465c7a36dab0c7fcd046e0d40522d48882100d7cfabcd73ef/KenUeno_press05-WEB.jpg" data-mid="86183558" border="0" data-scale="40" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f59d9dfd8ec0e1d465c7a36dab0c7fcd046e0d40522d48882100d7cfabcd73ef/KenUeno_press05-WEB.jpg" /> WEB (2000 x 3000 pixels) Download︎︎︎PRINT (7.67 x 11.5 inches) Download︎︎︎ PHOTO CREDITThilo Rückeis https://kenueno.com/Press-Reviews-List Fri, 11 Dec 2020 22:21:59 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Press-Reviews-List REVIEWS︎︎︎ ARTICLES︎︎︎ The New York Times (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Anastasia Tsioulcas DATE OF PUBLICATION Oct. 13, 2022 DESCRIPTION CRITIC’S PICK Review: Musicians of Color Reclaim Control in a White Space “Ueno’s score nods to 19th-century Western idioms, traditional Korean music and shimmering contemporary electronica. The effect is not a pastiche, but a sonic code switching. He also allows Tines and Koh — exemplary technicians and artists of profound intensity — to explore their full tonal and textural ranges. Moments of racial violence are evoked by Koh playing growling, guttural scratch tones, often on her open G string, while Tines cycles from his rich basso profundo to an ethereal falsetto. (The day before “Everything Rises” opened, BAM named Tines as its next artist in residence, beginning in January.) The piece ends with a hopeful original song, “Better Angels,” which is preceded by a particularly haunting sequence.“ Asia Pacific Arts(Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BYVania Fong DATE OF PUBLICATIONApril. 25, 2022 DESCRIPTIONThe last piece, “Better Angels,” is a simple yet powerful song about embracing “the better angels of our nature” in the face of historical injustices and generations of invisibilization and oppression. In this performance space, grief, sorrow, and guilt arose in response to Tines and Koh’s deeply personal stories, but so did empathy, hope, and admiration for the performers and their families for stepping into the unknown, whether it be a new country or a bold musical statement, in hopes that the next generation can live a better life and “stop singin’ songs for freedom / because in fact [they] are free” (Ueno, “Amen”). The Wire (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Emily Pothast DATE OF PUBLICATION 2020 December DESCRIPTION “For UC Berkeley music professor and composer Ken Ueno, the bullhorn has become an extension of his extended vocal technique, rooted in circular breathing and throat-singing techniques.” Wallpaper (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Anna Yudina DATE OF PUBLICATION 2017 December 28 DESCRIPTION “Tsang’s own contribution – an immersive installation designed to amplify the soundwork by composer and vocalist Ken Ueno – is one of the exhibition’s highlights that mark the 2017 Biennale’s active involvement with contemporary art.” The Log Journal (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Steve Smith DATE OF PUBLICATION 2017 April 14 DESCRIPTION “Rollicking and meditative in alternation, the music sustains its initial fascination; Ueno’s techniques are novel, but never mere novelty, serving expressive purposes consistently throughout this haunting work.” Seen and Heard International (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Daniele Sahr DATE OF PUBLICATION 2017 April 7 DESCRIPTION “Within this eclectic space of exploration (which includes throat singing) he produces songs like There is No One Like You sung by Connery, that you want to add to your soundtrack to reshuffle an evening after work. It is not only testament to his accessibility but also his wide range of musicality that he can touch the tastes of all his listeners.” NEW YORK TIMES (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim DATE OF PUBLICATION 2016 June 14 DESCRIPTION “The rubbery sputter that this exotic-looking instrument now emitted added to the dynamic contrast between organic and inorganic sounds in ‘Future Lilacs.’ The work opens with a dynamic rock-charged section in which the electric guitar worries away at a single note with microtonally altered impulses, then settles into a languid postlude that again makes beautiful use of the ethereal cloud-chamber bowls.” blogs. post-gazette.com (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Elizabeth Bloom DATE OF PUBLICATION 2015 November 13 DESCRIPTION “The concerto itself was raw, ear-tingling and visceral. Despite thinking that the highest note he could sing was C-Sharp, three octaves above middle C, he in fact hit the D a half-step higher. Quite the memorable evening.” artsbeat. blogs.nytimes.com (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim DATE OF PUBLICATION 2015 October 7 DESCRIPTION “Ken Ueno’s ‘Peradam’ offers a heady brew of harmonies flickering with microtones, harmonics and vocalizations that draws heavily on the individual talents of the versatile Del Sol players, which in the case of the violist Charlton Lee includes eerily accomplished samples of Tuvan throat singing.” My Entertainment World (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Brian Boruta DATE OF PUBLICATION 2014 June 7 DESCRIPTION “Gallo is intellectual theatre of the highest order, but, unlike most other theatre of which this is true, it refuses to be up tight, and removes just about every ounce of pretention from the air around it. After all, it’s hard to be pretentious while barefoot, on a beach towel, on a bench, in front of a beach of Cheerios. Yes, Cheerios, the beloved breakfast cereal which serves as both sand and projection screen during Ueno’s 90 minute opera about memory, landscapes, and the shifting tides of what it means to exist and be in this world.” Boston Musical Intelligencer (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY John Kochevar DATE OF PUBLICATION 2014 June 2 DESCRIPTION “Gallo was ultimately compelling in conception and performance. Nature will serve us with more disasters; ‘the present-day composer refuses to die.’” Boston GLOBE (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Matthew Guerriri DATE OF PUBLICATION 2014 June 2 DESCRIPTION “...very much an experimental opera, not only in its willingness to try anything, but in that its dramatic impulse is, in essence, its inventive impulse. Opera might be the only form capable of housing the piece’s superabundance of ideas; Ueno recapitulates a bit of genre phylogeny while demonstrating that the family tree still produces surprising branches.” Seen and Heard International (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Daniele Sahr DATE OF PUBLICATION 2014 January 29 DESCRIPTION “...a combination of the strange and beautiful, as he blended his voice with the transcendent meditative quality evoked in Peradam.” NewMusicBox (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Matthew Guerrieri DATE OF PUBLICATION 2014 January 28 DESCRIPTION “The ending—a long cadenza which featured Uitti creeping up the fingerboard into a distant, shortwave squeal of high natural harmonics—was breathtaking.” New York Times (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim DATE OF PUBLICATION 2013 January 25 DESCRIPTION “Sometimes they were even gorgeous, as in ‘Shiroi Ishi,’ an a cappella work by Ken Ueno. Mr. Ueno is a composer on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, who in his own singing explores and expands the eerie overtones created by techniques like Tuvan throat singing.” CHICAGO CLASSICAL REVIEW (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Lawrence A. Johnson DATE OF PUBLICATION 2012 March 30 DESCRIPTION “Ken Ueno’s Disjecta turned out to be the most compelling work of the evening.” NEW YORK TIMES (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Allan Kozinn DATE OF PUBLICATION 2011 April 13 DESCRIPTION “‘(X)igagai,’ a gripping, visceral soundscape inspired by the Pirahã people of the Amazon basin, a fascinating tribe whose language apparently has no words for colors or numbers. (The title refers to spirits that only the Pirahã people are able to see.)” Consequence of Sound (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Jake Cohen DATE OF PUBLICATION 2011 April 13 DESCRIPTION “...matched by the dissonance, experimentalism, and sheer bravado of Ken Ueno’s piece for Alarm Will Sound, (X)igágáí. Ueno’s piece explored different kinds of white noise and wind-like timbres, utilizing a full array of human- and instrument-generated white noise.” Seated Ovation (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Will Robin DATE OF PUBLICATION 2011 April 2 DESCRIPTION “The best piece of the bunch was Two Hands, a placid work for violist Kim Kashkashian and percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky, a success as much for its compositional rigor as for its luminous performance—Kashkashian, the dean of American viola, gave each individual gesture a sense of inevitability, the kind of radiant deliberateness one hears in a great reading of Mozart or Bach.” Baltimore Sun (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Tim Smith DATE OF PUBLICATION 2010 December 8 DESCRIPTION “The finale showed the composer at his most persuasive. ‘Talus’ was written for violist Wendy Richman, who broke her ankle in a fall in 2006 — during a rehearsal for a David Lang opera. Ueno essentially dramatizes that accident — the piece starts with a scream from the soloist — but he avoids gimmicky. It's quite a deep and involving work of exceptional lyrical power with long-sustained notes and the spaces in between. Richman was the impressive player. She had the tense harmonic language communicating vividly.” American Record Guide Reviews Ken Ueno: Talus (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Robert Haskins DATE OF PUBLICATION 2010 September 1 DESCRIPTION “Ueno writes strongly against the grain of standard expectations for the concerto by reserving the second half of the piece for the two soloists alone. And what sounds like a simple, almost banal gesture becomes incredibly moving—a daring decision that perfectly matches the poetry of the work. It is completely in keeping with Ken Ueno, who I believe is going to be an extremely important American composer.” Washington Post (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Steven Brookes DATE OF PUBLICATION 2010 September 21 DESCRIPTION “‘Sabinium’ was fascinating throughout.” Detroit Free Press (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Mark Stryker DATE OF PUBLICATION 2009 June 13 DESCRIPTION “Ueno relies on fiercely concentrated, pointillistic gestures and unusual effects to evoke a state of suspended meditation: gentle scrapes, quick slashes, erotic shivers, cold stares, fleeting melodies that shimmer like apparitions.” Boston Globe (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Matthew Guerriri DATE OF PUBLICATION 2008 November 18 DESCRIPTION “It’s a concerto that engrossingly reinvents the discourse.” The Boston Musical Intelligencer (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Peter Van Zandt Lane DATE OF PUBLICATION 2008 November 14 DESCRIPTION “...one cannot deny that Talus was the most memorable piece of the evening.” Washington Post (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Stephen Brookes DATE OF PUBLICATION 2008 April 28 DESCRIPTION “...the piece had a fascinating, elemental power that resonated long after it ended.” Sequenza 21 (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY John Nasukaluk Clare DATE OF PUBLICATION 2008 April 3 DESCRIPTION “After intermission, the amazingly creative ‘On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis’ by Ken Ueno was captivating. A natural blend of dissonance and glissandi, along with rough and sudden entrances of instruments, made a perfect parallel to Ueno’s singing... Most impressive was a cadenza-like throat singing passage, including a brilliant range of dynamics and wide intervals. I’ll listen for more Ueno in the future.” Boston Globe (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Matthew Guerriri DATE OF PUBLICATION 2008 March 31 DESCRIPTION “Ken Ueno's absorbing On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis is a concerto for himself, singing, screeching, growling, throat singing - manipulating the growl's acoustic overtones. The opening - a recording of Ueno at the age of 6, babbling - foreshadowed serious play, the complex resonances of Ueno's vocal excursions transformed into bright orchestral fanfares. The work's single-mindedness proved disarmingly generous. It was the evening's far-out highlight.” mikedidonato.com (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Mike DiDonato DATE OF PUBLICATION 2008 March 31 DESCRIPTION “Intermission came and went and the second half started with the music Ken Ueno with yet another world premier. This one called ‘On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis.’ DANG! Ken is an overtone singer. and I was BLOWN away.” BOSTON HERALD (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Christine Fernsebner DATE OF PUBLICATION 2008 March 31 DESCRIPTION “Ken Ueno also drew a loud reaction, and the greatest variety of reactions, with his first classical throat-singing work.” Reviews of Concerts in Boston and at Tufts (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Emily Hoyler DATE OF PUBLICATION 2008 March 30 DESCRIPTION “Composer and vocal soloist Ken Ueno offered the audience a rare treat of vocal technique and compositional innovation.” Brainwashed (Blood Money, “Axis of Blood” Review) (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY John Kealy DATE OF PUBLICATION 2006 July 12 DESCRIPTION “Ken Ueno's vocals are incredible. He goes from deep, booming growls to high pitched squeals, the kind that I would normally associate with a boiling kettle or Blixa Bargeld. Using circular breathing techniques Ueno keeps his vocals going continuously for large stretches of time (growling on the exhalation, squealing on the inhalation). As well as being physically impressive, it goes well with Whitney and Worster's rhythms and noise.” Boston Globe (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Kevin Lowenthal DATE OF PUBLICATION 2005 May 30 DESCRIPTION “The concert opener, the world premiere of Ueno's ‘Kaze-no-Oka (Hill of the Winds)’ (2005), featured Japanese masters Kifu Mitsuhashi on shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and Yukio Tanaka on biwa (Japanese lute). The piece began with the orchestra alone. Dense, slowly shifting microtonal sound-masses — earthy rumblings against ethereal chord-clouds — painted a vast, brooding aural landscape.” NewMusicBox (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Julia Werntz DATE OF PUBLICATION 2005 July 1 DESCRIPTION “Many composers might shy away from separating these elements so completely, for fear of incongruity. But the tension at the moment of the duo's entry, the sustained intensity and relatedness of the music despite the sudden drop in density, the surprising length of the cadenza - these things resulted in a piece with its own strong sense of balance and ‘meaning.’” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Pierre Ruhe DATE OF PUBLICATION 2003 November 4 DESCRIPTION “The evening was redeemed by the last work, ‘...Blood Blossoms...,’ composed last year by Boston-based Ken Ueno, who was in the audience. Funky and asymmetrical, the score is thick with scary tremolos, punctuated by blasts of percussion or piano. It lopes along all crazylike. It was a nifty piece by a young composer worth following and showed the value of BF's mission: bringing to Atlanta vital contemporary music you can't find anywhere else.” The Boston Phoenix (Read︎︎︎) REVIEW BY Will Spitz DATE OF PUBLICATION 2005 May 27 - June 2 DESCRIPTION “Who ever said that practice makes perfect? UMass-Dartmouth professors Jorrit Dijkstra and Ken Ueno didn't even bother to rehearse for their debut as an improvised duo last Friday at the NAO Gallery in SoWa.“ https://kenueno.com/Press-Articles-List Fri, 11 Dec 2020 22:20:13 +0000 Ken Ueno https://kenueno.com/Press-Articles-List REVIEWS︎︎︎ ARTICLES︎︎︎