Commons Conversations Event Transcript Now Online: Ken Ueno
Missed Ken Ueno's lecture on “uncorseting" musical practice and, by extension, claim artistic agency for those who do not belong to the dominant culture? The transcript and video are now online!
Rome Prize and Berlin Prize winner Ken Ueno, 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.
Check out the transcript here!
And watch the video below!