Ken Steen

Ken Steen (b. 1958) is a composer, sound artist and educator living in Glastonbury, CT. His music sits squarely on the frontier between the acoustic and electronic domains of musical expression; often combining traditional orchestra, chamber ensemble or soloist with electronic instruments or processed sound and noise. He has received numerous awards for composition including an ISCM Boston Composition Award, an American Symphony Orchestra League New Music Project with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin, grants from The Connecticut Commission on the Arts, The New England Foundation for the Arts, Meet the Composer, The Roberts Foundation, The American Composers Forum Continental Harmony Encore Project, The Margaret Fairbanks Jory Copying Assistance Program of the American Music Center as well as fellowships to The Millay Colony for the Arts, the Artists’ Enclave at I-Park and The MacDowell Colony.

In addition to composing concert music in many forms, Steen has composed a wide variety of works both acoustic and electronic for sound installation, dance, theater and web-distribution. His music and soundworks have been featured on concert and radio programs throughout the U.S.A., Canada, Italy, Belgium, Romania, Australia, Cuba and Japan among others. His work has recently been part of: the Sonic Residues 02 Festival, Festival of Electro-Acoustic Music: Spring in Havana, the Currents in Electro-acoustic Music Festival and the 60X60 International Project. Recent premiere performances and sound installations in such diverse locations as Xi'an, China, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brazil, Spring in Havana Festival, Havana, Cuba, Merkin Concert Hall in NYC and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, Australia, confirm that his work is steadily attaining international recognition.

Steen's music can be found on the Capstone, Vienna Modern Masters, Auralit and CRI CD labels, as well as at www.kensteen.com, and is published by University of Arizona Publications, Harrock Hall Music as well as American Composers Edition. Some of his soundworks can be found at www.noisefarm.org. Steen is currently Associate Professor of Composition and Theory and director of Studio D at the Hartt School, University of Hartford.