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People  •  Music  •  Part-Time Lecturer

Beau Kenyon

Departments

Music

Education

  • MA, Composition, Tufts University
  • BMus, Composition; Piano Performance, Berklee College of Music

A composer and sound artist, Beau Kenyon seeks out and creates projects for interdisciplinary collaboration, innovative opportunities for audience engagement, and curiosity-driven learning models. As the Composer-in-Residence for the Boston Public Library, he composed and produced And all the men and women merely players, a 70-minute site-specific performance installation that deconstructs Shakespeare’s As You Like It for an immersive weeklong public performance of six musicians and five dancers that was staged throughout the Boston Public Library Central Branch at Copley Square.

In addition to drawing on his musical training from Berklee College of Music (B.M. Piano and Composition) and Tufts University (M.A. Composition), he also engages his 10+ years of experience in Montessori-based curriculum design and education leadership as well as his ongoing investigation of music cognition — most recently contributing to a publication inPLoS ONE on the relationship between musical study and Executive Function. Collectively, these passions work together to shape his fundamental approach to collaboration, partnership, and creativity. His work has been featured within many platforms, such as dance performances, online animated literature, television, concert halls, art gallery installations, and breweries.

Research/Publications Highlights

  • the SOUND  will generate a series of sound installations and two multidisciplinary audience-immersive performances containing first-person stories of success and family from Bostonians of various ages and cultural backgrounds. Project partners include 826 Boston, the Boston International Newcomers Academy, the Boston Public Library, and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. The final performance installation at the Emerald Necklace will also be produced in collaboration with Japanese Fog Artist, Fujiko Nakaya.
  • WONDER*sense  is   an ongoing collaboration with Brooklyn-based sculptor Natalia Zubko and direct result of their collaborative residency in the Arctic Circle in January, 2017. Their sculptural, sound, and light installation creates site-specific environments, each embedded with Kenyon’s composed sound art and directly inspired by our investigation of the arctic — particularly the aurora borealis. Their site-responsive installations have so far been featured at the Kingsborough Art Museum and Governor’s Island.
  • Oh.  is a sound installation series commissioned by the Leventhal Map Center that responds to climate change and is directly informed by each corresponding Map Center exhibit. Each piece is crafted with specific audio material, including the crystal singing bowls, the rumbling of a subway, slowly melting ice from a rain getter, a flock of birds wings, and Mary Oliver reading from  Moby Dick.