JAVS Fall 2005

exactly the righ t range, the [tenor] saxophone range" with the poten tial ro be "more con vincing than jazz vio lin. " Since high schoo l Kenj i had also been d rawn to improvisation, and sta rring in college, h e says, he "becam e in terested in contemporary , 0 concert mus1c that requires ir, like rhe New York School composers John Cage, Earl Brown, and '

rimes recalling a musica l idea from someth ing heard years ago. He somewhat reluctantly admits that many of his ideas come from tele visio n. For instance, tl1e first meas ure of a section of his pi ece for trumpet and piano recalls a lick from an episode of the television show Perry Mason that had stuck in his head since he was a child . His brass quintet T he Tormen t of rhe Metals owes the inspiration for its ride and rhc rransformative ele ment of d1c composition to a ref erence to alchemy in a book on med ieval rimes that he happened to tl1umb through. Kenji always rries to keep in mind tl1e experience of performing when composing music. This docs nor result in watered-down versions of his ideas nor docs he sacrifice his ideas because they may be techni cally challenging. lt is not uncom mon, however, for him ro revisit his compositions post-performance and mal

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equally accomplished vio list; he earned two perfo rmance degrees at the Juilliard Schoo l in addition to his master's degree in compositi on. Prio r to college he had o ften fanta sized about being a composer, but did not possess the theory back g ro und ar that t ime to develop his ideas. O nce he delved in to writing music, he discovered char his play ing could info rm it- and vice versa. Kenj i's performance venues arc as diverse as his listening tastes. H e played in a rock band in college, perfo rms at summer chamber music fes tivals, is a member of the new music group Ne(x)tworks, and is a fiddl er in the New York based bluegrass band C itigrass. His Lichtenstein Symphony is sched uled to be performed by rhe Colo rado Symphony during the 2005-2006 season and he is in the process of developing rus jazz p lay ing because, as he says, "the vio la is

Ch ristian Wolff. " His association with the new music group Nc (x) tworks is a d irect resul t of chis in teres t. H e also had the opportu nity in college to work on improv isation in a workshop with Bobby McFerrin and in collaboration with Ornette Coleman. Seven years ago he began co delve more heavily into non-classical improvi sation when he picked up the vio lin aga in and joined the bluegrass band C itigrass. "Nowadays," he continues, ' 'I'm combining th e differcnr performing outlets mo re, doing some fidd ling on the viola, putting mo re fiddle influence in the pieces 1 write and performing my own music," which he shied away from early on. T he inspiratio n for his music often comes from tl1c least predictable places. H e is open ro receiving influence from anywh ere, often

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