Composer/vocalist Ken Ueno has been commissioned twice by the Fromm Music Foundation for orchestral works and was recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 2006-07. 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. Ensembles and performers who have played Ken’s music include Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky, Mayumi Miyata, Teodoro Anzellotti, the Nieuw Ensemble, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Frances-Marie Uitti, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. Ueno’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. 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 portrait CD of three concertos was released on the Bmop/sound label.
Assistant Professor of Music
University of California at Berkeley
Two New Compositions
During his full-year fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin, Ueno worked on several new compositions. He completed a twenty-minute work for the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players and spent the winter completing a commission for Alarm Will Sound, premiered in New York in April 2011. In the spring, Ueno worked on a solo percussion work for Dame Evelyn Glennie.
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David Abraham
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Michael J. Abramowitz
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