dj sniff and Ken Ueno perform at CNMAT.

About dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) :

dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) is a musician and curator in the field of experimental electronic arts and improvised music. His work builds upon a distinct practice that combines DJing, instrument design, and free improvisation. Over the years, he has collaborated with artists such as: Evan Parker, Otomo Yoshihide, Tarek Atoui, Senyawa and many others. He holds a B.A. from Keio University Department of Aesthetics and Science of Arts, M.P.S. from NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, and Ph.D. from De Montfort University Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Media. Alongside his artistic work, he has held positions at various institutions such as Artistic Director of STEIM – Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music Amsterdam (2007-2012), Visiting Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong School of Creative Media (2012-17), and Associate Professor at Kyoto Seika University (2020 - 2022). Currently based in Los Angeles, he is the Co-Director of Asian Meeting Festival (AMF) - an international music festival that brings together experimental musicians from Asia since 2005, instructor at Shared Campus Summer Schools led by Zurich University of the Arts, and a part-time lecturer at Kyoto Seika and Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Global Arts.

About Ken Ueno:

A recipient of the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize, Ken Ueno (b. 1970), is a composer/vocalist/sound artist who is currently a Professor at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chambers Distinguished Professor Chair in Music. Ensembles and performers who have played Ken’s music include Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky, Mayumi Miyata, Teodoro Anzellotti, Aki Takahashi, Wendy Richman, Greg Oakes, BMOP, Alarm Will Sound, Steve Schick and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Nieuw Ensemble, and Frances-Marie Uitti. His music has been performed at such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MusikTriennale Köln Festival, the Muziekgebouw, Ars Musica, Warsaw Autumn, Other Minds, the Hopkins Center, Spoleto USA, Steim, and at the Norfolk Music Festival. Ken’s piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, was featured in their repertoire for over ten years, with performances at such venues as Queen Elizabeth Hall in England, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and was aired on Italian national radio, RAI 3. 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. In 2012, he was a featured artist on Other Minds 17. In 2014, Frances-Mairie Uitti and the Boston Modern Orchestra premiered his concerto for two-bow cello and orchestra, and Guerilla Opera premiered a run of his chamber opera, Gallo, to critical acclaim. He has performed as soloist in his vocal concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in New York and Boston, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Lithuanian National Symphony, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and with orchestras in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and California. Ken holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. A monograph CD of three orchestral concertos was released on the Bmop/sound label. His bio appears in The Grove Dictionary of American Music.