Ken Field

Ken Field is a composer and saxophonist. WIth a degree in computer science from Brown University and a diploma in instrumental performance from Berklee College of Music, Field was a research scientist at Bolt Beranek and Newman, the renowned Cambridge think-tank, before shifting to full-time music performance and composition in the late 1990's. He has been a member since 1988 of the internationally acclaimed modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. Field also leads the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, an improvisational brass band whose second release, Forked Tongue, was included on best-of-year lists in the Village Voice, the Postimees (Estonia), and ten others. The Ensemble's debut CD, Year of the Snake, was named by influential WNYC music director John Schaefer as one of his top 20 "new sounds" releases of all time. The group has appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the Puffin Cultural Forum, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and numerous other venues. Field has performed in the US, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Ireland, and Japan, and has been Composer-in-Residence at the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation (Wyoming), the Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida). His solo releases document his compositions and improvisations for layered alto saxophones. His recordings have been featured in The New York Times, Saxophone Journal, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. With his wife, animator Karen Aqua, Field has co-directed a series of community animation/soundtrack workshops resulting in a number of award-winning student films. Field is a Vandoren Performing Artist. His music is heard regularly on Sesame Street.