Ken Ueno

From Wind Repertory Project
Ken Ueno

Biography

Ken Ueno (b. 11 January 1970, Bronxville, N.Y.) is an American composer/vocalist/sound artist.

Dr. Ueno studied at the United States Military Academy. He graduated from Berklee College of Music with a B.M. in film scoring/composition Summa Cum Laude, from Boston University with a M.M., from Yale School of Music with a M.M.A., and from Harvard University with a Ph.D.

He has composed orchestral works, for jazz big band and woodwind quintet, and two dance pieces for the Boston Conservatory. 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.

A recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize, Ken Ueno has heard his music 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. 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.

Dr. Ueno is currently a Professor at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor Chair in Music. His bio appears in The Grove Dictionary of American Music.


Works for Winds


Resources