Wattage: Bent Frequency

Hailed as “one of the brightest new music ensembles on the scene today” by Gramophone magazine, Atlanta-based Bent Frequency (BF) has established itself as the Southeast’s premiere contemporary music ensemble. Founded in 2003, BF brings the avant-garde to life through adventurous and socially conscious programming, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and community engagement. A champion of historically underrecognized composers, BF’s events aim to be inclusive of their diverse and dynamic community, ushering the contemporary music experience from the strict formality of the concert hall into the fresh air of artistic expression and experimentation.

Ken Ueno is a composer, performer, sound artist, and scholar. Leading performers and ensembles around the world have championed Ueno’s music. His piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, was featured in their repertoire for over ten years. Another work, Pharmakon, was performed dozens of times nationally by Eighth Blackbird during their 2001-2003 seasons. A portrait concert of Ken’s was featured on MaerzMusik in Berlin in 2011. 

As a vocalist, Ueno is known for inventing extended techniques and has performed as a soloist in his vocal concerto with orchestras in Boston, New York, Warsaw, Vilnius, Bangkok, Sacramento, Stony Brook, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and Berkeley. As a sound artist, his installations have been commissioned and exhibited by museums and galleries in Beijing, Guangzhou, Taipei, Mexico City, Art Basel, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. 

One of his largest projects, Daedalus Drones, an installation (a fence-labyrinth housing a swarm of flying drones choreographed for performance with instrumentalists) was installed at the Asia Society of Hong Kong and featured on the New Vision Arts Festival in 2021.