In the summer of 2015, I visited the site of the Minidoka Relocation Center, one of ten prison camps created in 1942 through President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 to unconstitutionally detain Japanese American citizens against their will. Now a beautifully restored National Historic Site, the grounds of Minidoka offer a wealth of information and survivor testimonials of this dark chapter in our nation’s history. Of particular interest to me was a small stream of water just beyond the perimeter of the camp. Evidently, the prisoners used to gather next to the barbed wire fence to watch the stream, as the gently flowing water brought them great comfort in the midst of a profoundly dehumanizing experience. This piece is a meditation on that stream, that fence, and those people.

– © Kenji Bunch

​Commissioned by and dedicated to JACK Quartet and Colin Currie; made possible by a generous grant from the Fromm Music Foundation.

Andy Akiho, steel pan

2024 Grammy Nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

Karakurenai is a solo for prepared tenor pan, written during a visit to Rochester in June 2007. The piece incorporates an ostinato that is thirty-one sixteenth notes per cycle against a quarter-note melody. The tenor pan is prepared with four magnets that lower the four respective pitches one half-step. The magnets, in combination with a cardboard coat hanger bottom, create a unique dampened timbre that serves as the ostinato throughout the entire piece. The melody is played with a chopstick in the opposite hand.

—© Andy Akiho

Paul Chihara composed the solo violin piece, Jennifer, for Jennifer Koh, upon a commission from Ken Ueno. Ken asked Paul to reflect on his formative experiences at Minidoka, where Paul was incarcerated as a child. This beautiful piece is the result of that prompt. In it, Paul quotes Aka Tombo and I’ll Be Seeing You, songs that were popular at the time, during the war, and which reflects the multicultural complexity of his history.

Following my performance of my solo viola work Minidoka at the Moab Festival in 2019, Michael Barrett, the festival’s artistic director, conceived the idea of a larger-scaled work for narrator and chamber ensemble, further telling the story of the illegal wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans—a story which had reached the outskirts of Moab itself, where a prison camp (Moab Isolation Center) had been hastily set up for “troublemaker” detainees. The result was Lost Freedom: A Memory, a collaborative work with original text by George Takei and my original music. I worked closely with George and Michael to arrive at this work, in which George tells his very personal account of his early childhood experiences behind the barbed wire fences of incarceration. Scored for string quartet, piano, and percussion, the work was premiered in September 2021 at the Moab Music Festival.

– © Kenji Bunch 

Andy Akiho is a “trailblazing” (Los Angeles Times) Grammy-nominated composer whose bold works unravel intricate and unexpected patterns while surpassing preconceived boundaries of classical music. Known as “an increasingly in-demand composer” (The New York Times), Akiho has earned international acclaim for his large-scale works that emphasize the natural theatricality of live performance.

The 2021-2022 season features the NYC premiere of Akiho’s double Grammy-nominated and 2022 Pulitzer Prize-nominated work Seven Pillars for Sandbox Percussion. Equally at home writing chamber music and symphonies, Akiho is the Oregon Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-2023 composer-in-residence.

Recent engagements include commissioned premieres by the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony, China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Music@Menlo, LA Dance Project, and The Industry.

Akiho has been recognized with many prestigious awards and organizations including the Rome Prize, Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize, Harvard University Fromm Commission, Barlow Endowment, New Music USA, and Chamber Music America. His compositions have been featured by organizations such as Bang on a Can, American Composers Forum, The Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong, and the Heidelberg Festival.

An active steel pannist, Akiho has performed his works with the LA Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble, the International Drum Festival in Taiwan, and more.

Akiho was born in 1979 in Columbia, SC, and is currently based in Portland, OR, and New York City. andyakiho.com

Kenji Bunch writes music that looks for commonalities between musical styles, for understandings that transcend cultural or generational barriers, and for empathic connections with his listeners. Drawing on vernacular musical traditions, an interest in highlighting historical injustices and inaccuracies, and techniques from his classical training, Bunch creates music with a unique, personal vocabulary that appeals to a diverse array of performers and audiences. With his work frequently performed worldwide and recorded numerous times, Bunch considers his current mission the search for and celebration of shared emotional truths about the human experience from the profound to the absurd, to help facilitate connection and healing through entertainment, vulnerability, humor, and joy.

As the first student to receive dual graduate degrees in viola and composition from The Juilliard School, Mr. Bunch has been widely recognized for his groundbreaking works for viola, and remains active as an innovative performer, comfortable in traditional, experimental, and improvisational musical contexts. He currently serves as artistic director of the new music group Fear No Music and is deeply committed to music education in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife, pianist Monica Ohuchi, their two children, and two dogs. kenjibunch.net 

Sergio Carreno joined the Oregon Symphony as a member of the percussion section in 2012. Hailing from Miami, FL, Sergio developed an eclectic musical taste which has led to collaboration with symphony orchestras, theater productions, dance companies, chamber music ensembles, and Latin, rock, and jazz bands.

Sergio has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony, among others. He toured the U.S. several times with the Dallas Brass, and has appeared as a soloist with the Oregon Symphony and the New World Symphony. Sergio was a New World Symphony fellow for four seasons under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, with whom he performed in Europe, South America, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and on PBS Great Performances. He holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, a student of Timothy Adams Jr.

Sergio is married to Oregon Symphony violinist Lisbeth Carreno, and together they enjoy trying to keep up with Portland’s ever-growing food scene. 

Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters. The following year she was appointed director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade. 

In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in 2020. They were named recipients of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021 for their efforts during the pandemic.

Most recently, Gloria was named Advisor of the newly launched Institute for Concert Artists at the New England Conservatory of Music. Gloria released two albums—her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records.

Gloria received her bachelor, masters, and doctoral degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist. gloriachien.com 

Violinist Jessica Lee has built a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, and now as Assistant Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra since 2016. She was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and has been hailed as “a soloist which one should make a special effort to hear, wherever she plays.” Her international appearances include solo performances with the Plzen Philharmonic, Gangnam Symphony, Malaysia Festival Orchestra, and at the Rudolfinum in Prague. At home, she has appeared with orchestras such as the Houston, Grand Rapids, and Spokane symphonies.

Jessica has performed in recital at venues including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Ravinia “Rising Stars,” the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, and the Kennedy Center.

A long-time member of the Johannes Quartet as well as of the The Bowers Program (formerly the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two), Jessica has also toured frequently with Musicians from Marlboro, including appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston’s Gardner Museum, and with the Guarneri Quartet in their farewell season. Her chamber music festival appearances include Bridgehampton, Santa Fe, Seoul Spring, Caramoor, Olympic, and Music@Menlo. She also put together a six-video chamber music series during the pandemic which was a collaboration between the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Clinic to bring chamber music from iconic spaces in Cleveland to the greater Cleveland community.

Jessica has always had a passion for teaching and has served on the faculties of Vassar College and Oberlin College, and now is on violin faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen following studies with Weigang Li, and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree under Robert Mann and Ida Kavafian. She completed her studies for a Master’s Degree at the Juilliard School. jessicaleeviolinist.com 

Brazilian cellist Marilyn de Oliveira enjoys an active career as a symphonic and chamber musician. Since joining the Oregon Symphony as the Assistant Principal Cellist in 2009, Marilyn has been a founding member of Mousai Remix and Pyxis String Quartets, cellist of Third Angle New Music and 45th Parallel Universe, and a guest with prestigious festivals such as Grand Teton Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, and Chamber Music Northwest. In addition to her many performance engagements, Mrs. de Oliveira is also an educator, orchestral coach, and music activist. She is part of the music faculty at Reed College, maintains a private studio with graduates now in renowned music schools worldwide, and founded the Oregon Symphony Musician’s Caroling Project—a collaborative effort which has brought music to those in need during the holidays for over a decade. Prior to joining the OSO, Marilyn served as Acting Assistant Principal Cellist and section member of the San Antonio Symphony and was a fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami, FL. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University, her Master of Music degree from Rice University, and was the Bronze Award Winner in the senior division of The Sphinx Competition in 2006. 

Searmi Park (violin) served as Concertmaster of the Eugene Symphony 2013-2017 before joining the Oregon Symphony as a member of their violin section in 2017. Previously a member of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for ten years, Searmi has played as Guest Concertmaster of the Santa Barbara Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Bolshoi Ballet, New West Symphony, American Ballet Theatre, and Miami City Ballet.

Searmi recently resigned from her full-time position with the Oregon Symphony to start a nonprofit organization called Autism Mustang Alliance, providing no-cost equine-assisted programs for teens and adults on the autism spectrum. Searmi also returned as Concertmaster of the Eugene Symphony in the fall of 2022.

Searmi spent summers studying chamber music in Taos, New Mexico with the Takács and Chicago string quartets. She also studied with pianist Robert McDonald and at the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival. She has played and taught at festivals in South Africa and Portugal, and participated in the Oregon Bach Festival and Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo.

Searmi was born and raised in Los Angeles, where she began playing the violin at age six. She continued her studies at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences and went on to receive her B.A. and M.M. at UCLA under violinist Mark Kaplan. She currently lives with her family in the beautiful Oregon countryside, playing with their mustangs and raising goats, pigs, ducks, and chickens. 

George Takei is a civil rights activist, social media superstar, Grammy-nominated recording artist, The New York Times bestselling author, and pioneering actor whose career has spanned six decades. He has appeared in more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles, most famously as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, and he has used his success as a platform to fight for social justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and marriage equality. His advocacy is personal: during World War II, Takei spent his childhood unjustly imprisoned in United States incarceration camps along with 125,000 other Japanese Americans.

He now serves as Chair Emeritus and a member of the Japanese American National Museum’s Board of Trustees. Takei served on the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission under President Bill Clinton, and, in 2004, was conferred with the Gold Rays with Rosette of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan for his contribution to US-Japan relations. He also serves on Portland Japanese Garden’s International Advisory Board. georgetakei.com