This Throat Singer ain’t from Tuva…
Ken Ueno appeared with Joan Jeanrenaud at BAM last month. I missed the gig, but was excited to see the YouTube footage.
When I met Ken, in the graduate program at Boston University, he hadn’t yet started to sing; he was primarily a guitarist. Although he’s written a wide range of compositions, including Shiroi Ishi, a beautiful choral piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, in recent years he has carved out a distinctive identity as a throat-singer. Combining techniques from multiple traditions as well as some effects and ideas of his own, Ueno is now slugging it out toe to toe with Jeanrenaud!
You can hear more of Ken’s recent efforts, including a bunch of his throat-singing, on Talus, his disc for the BMOP/sound label.
Thanks Sarah. I gave a talk on Carter at SFSU last year, and would love to return to the Bay Area – it’s really an amazing place for music!
This was a fantastic concert, and it was amazing to hear Joan and Ken perform together. We’ve got some great concerts going on at the Berkeley Art Museum, and admission is only five dollars. The next one will be on June 4th, with The Residents in their very first acoustic show. And Terry Riley will start next season with a performance on September 3rd. Christian, I hope you can come out to the West Coast some time soon!