{"id":6132,"date":"2024-08-01T04:05:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T08:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/profile\/zen-t-kuriyama\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:50:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:50:37","slug":"zen-t-kuriyama","status":"publish","type":"faculty-profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/profile\/zen-t-kuriyama\/","title":{"rendered":"Zen T. Kuriyama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ph.D., Brandeis University
\nM.F.A., Brandeis University
\nM.S.M., University of Notre Dame
\nM.Mus., Stony Brook University
\nB.A., University of Hawaii at M\u0101noa<\/p>\n

Dr. Zen Kuriyama is a musicologist<\/a> and choral conductor<\/a> who currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of the College Choir<\/a> at Bates College. In addition to his appointment in music<\/a>, Dr. Kuriyama is a program faculty member in European Studies<\/a>. One of the last prot\u00e9g\u00e9s of conductor and interdisciplinary artist Carmen-Helena T\u00e9llez<\/a> (1955-2021), Zen’s cross-disciplinary scholarship engages with musicology, Jewish studies, Christian sacred music, Catholic theology\/spirituality, European studies, and music performance. His scholarship has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and his doctoral dissertation on the composer Gerald Finzi and Jewish identity within late-modern Britain won the Brandeis University Provost Dissertation Award. Zen has received numerous research grants, including funding from the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry. He is currently working on two monograph projects: Musical England and the Jew<\/em>, which explores the complex relationship between English musical culture and Jewry; and\u00a0Endless Light: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson<\/em>, the first book-length biography of the legendary mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954-2006). A noted guest lecturer, he has delivered invited talks at the University of St. Andrews (UK), the University of Cambridge (UK), Harvard University, Tennessee Tech University, SUNY Schenectady, Reed College, Rhodes College, and others. <\/span>Before joining Bates, Dr. Kuriyama was Assistant Professor of Music History at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Recent Publications\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Book Chapters<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“Hardy, Gerald Finzi, and the English Song.” The Oxford Handbook of Thomas Hardy.\u00a0<\/em>Ed. Gregory Tate. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.<\/p>\n

\u201cNationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and Jewishness in 19th- and 20th-century European Musical Culture.\u201d Teaching Global Music History: A Resource Book.<\/em> Ed. Gavin S. K. Lee. Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming.<\/p>\n

\u201cRESIGNATION and Virgil Thomson\u2019s <\/span>Hymns from the Old South.\u201d Christian Sacred Music in the Americas<\/a>.<\/span><\/i> Ed. Andrew Shenton & Joanna Smolko. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Recent Invited Lectures & Talks<\/b><\/p>\n

“Choral Music in Performance.” \u201cMore with Midcoast\u201d lecture series. Pre-concert talk for Midcoast Symphony Orchestra\u2019s performances of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony. May 16 & 17, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“Considering Matthew Shepard.”\u00a0<\/em>Department of Music, Rhodes College (Memphis, TN). April 27, 2025.<\/p>\n

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“‘Too Cosmopolitan’: Anti-Alienism, Gerald Finzi, and the English Musical Renaissance.” Department of Music, Reed College (Portland, Oregon). March 20, 2025.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFaur\u00e9\u2019s Requiem<\/em>: Death in the Light of Eternity.\u201d SUNY Schenectady School of Music, Schenectady, NY. November 20, 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cFaur\u00e9\u2019s Requiem<\/em>: Death in the Light of Eternity.\u201d Harvard Catholic Forum\/Harvard Catholic Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. November 7, 2024.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Recent Conference Presentations <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMusical England and the Jew.\u201d Jewish Studies and Music Study Group, American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, November 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Too Cosmopolitan\u2019: Gerald Finzi, Antisemitism, and the English Musical Renaissance.\u201d Individual paper presentation category. North American British Music Studies Association Conference. Colorado College, Colorado Springs, July 9-12, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Primacy of Prime: Rachmaninoff\u2019s <\/span>All-Night Vigil <\/span><\/i>and the Theology of the First Hour.\u201d 2021 British Forum for Ethnomusicology and Royal Musical Association Research Conference. Hosted by the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge, UK. January 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent Collegiate Guest Conducting\/Masterclasses <\/strong><\/p>\n

Reed College Collegium Musicum (Dir. Shohei Kobayashi), Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobis pacem, <\/em>March 2025.<\/p>\n

SUNY Schenectady School of Music Chorus (Dir. Joseph Han), Faur\u00e9’s Requiem<\/em>, November 2024.<\/p>\n

Recent Other Professional Guest Conducting\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chorus Master, Mahler Symphony #2, Midcoast Symphony Orchestra, May 2026.<\/p>\n

Recent Guest Clinician\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Choral workshop, Concord Academy (Concord, MA), October 2025.<\/p>\n

Choral workshop, Boston College High School (Boston, MA), October 2025.<\/p>\n

“It was a poem first: towards a more effective pedagogy in the teaching of art song.” National Association of Teachers of Singing — Maine Chapter, Annual Festival. Bates College, Lewiston, ME. November 9, 2024.<\/p>\n

Maine Gay Men\u2019s Chorus (Dir. Nate Menifield), annual retreat, November 2024.<\/p>\n

Recent Professional Singing Engagements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Piano-vocal recital with Chiharu Naruse. OceanView at Falmouth. Falmouth, Maine. June 5, 2025. <\/span><\/p>\n

Professional guest singer, Department of Music, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN (Dir. Jason Bishop), April 2025.<\/p>\n

Professional guest singer, Cathedral Church of Saint Luke, Portland, Maine (Dir. Christian Clough), recurring.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cantor, Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul, Lewiston, Maine,\u00a0recurring.<\/em><\/p>\n

For full CV, see below<\/span>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Zen Kuriyama, CV<\/a><\/p>\n

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