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Friday and Saturday, June 19 and 20, 2015
Kenji Bunch, born in Portland, Oregon on July 27, 1973, studied at the Juilliard
School in New York, where he received his undergraduate degree in viola (1995) and
his masters degree in viola and composition (1997); his principal teachers were Toby
Appel in viola and Eric Ewazen, Stanley Wolfe and Robert Beaser in composition.
Upon his graduation, Bunch received both the Lillian Fuchs Award in Viola and the
William Schuman Prize for Outstanding Leadership in Music, the school’s highest
honor. From 1998 to 2000, Bunch was Composer-in-Residence for Young Concert
Artists, Inc., composing two works for members of the YCA roster during his tenure;
during the 2003-2004 season, he served a two-week residency with the Mobile
Symphony under the auspices of the “Music Alive” program of Meet the Composer
and the League of American Orchestras. Bunch has received commissions from
such noted ensembles and artists as the English Chamber Orchestra, St. Luke’s
Chamber Ensemble, Windscape, Ahn Trio, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival,
Zoom! Festival of New Music, Collegium Novum-Zurich, New Juilliard Ensemble,
percussionist Daniel Druckman and the Omaha Symphony. Bunch’s music has
been performed widely, broadcast on NPR, BBC and German and Korean national
television, and recorded on the EMI Classics, Pony Canyon, Kleos Classics and
Helicon labels. Kenji Bunch is also continuing his career as a violist in solo, chamber,
orchestral and non-traditional settings, having performed not only with Continuum,
the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Virtuosi (as that ensemble’s
principal violist), but also with the rock group The Who, jazz legend Ornette
Coleman, pop vocalist Bobby McFerrin, the bluegrass band Citigrass (in which he
plays fiddle) and the path-breaking Flux Quartet. Committed to teaching, Bunch
gives lectures and master classes in composition, viola, chamber music, new music
and improvisation to students of all ages throughout the country, and has directed
the Mark Woolman Horner Music Education Fund Juilliard Residency Program and
taught at Juilliard School Pre-College and Mark O’Connor Strings Conference in
San Diego. In 2014 Kenji Bunch was appointed Artistic Director of Portland, Oregon-
based new music group FearNoMusic.
Part I: Songs of Anxiety and Unrest
I. Song of Wandering (Sioux)
(Translation by Frances Densmore)
In the night may I roam,
In the night may I roam,
Afar, afar, in the night may I roam.
Against the wind of morning, may I roam
In the night may I roam,
May I roam, may I roam.
II. Dream Song (Ojibwa)
It is I who travel in the winds,
It is I who whisper in the breeze,
I shake the trees,
I shake the earth,
I trouble the waters on every land.
III. Let Us See (Pawnee)
Let us see, is this real,
Let us see, is this real,
Let us see, is this real,
This life I am living?
