The Canopy by Ken Field

Music for The Canopy was commissioned by choreographer and dancer Joanie Block (selmadanse.com) for her 2024 production of Under the Canopy which focused on expressions of love, loss, and resilience from members of the Boston dance community.

The death of Block’s husband in 2021 led to a desire to capture her subsequent emotional journey, through memory, grief, acceptance, and resilience, with a performance in his memory, incorporating dances by other artists who had experienced significant loss in their lives. Block was referred to Ken Field as a potential source of music for the performance, not knowing until they met that he himself had experienced the loss of his wife, animator Karen Aqua, in 2011. Their shared experience deepened the emotional impact of this buoyant and richly nuanced celebration of life amidst struggle.

The instrumentation varies widely, from solo saxophone, to saxophone trio, to layered guitars, to bamboo “clarinet” and hand percussion, to flute with sequenced material – together showcasing Ken Field’s astonishing musical versatility. In addition to notated compositions, the release includes a number of Field’s improvisations, created in response to words or phrases from each dancer that referenced the emotions and moods that they hoped to communicate through their dance piece.

"Ken Field’s triumphal music enables listeners to see with their
mind’s eye what the dancers are performing on stage, helping us
to contain loss, survive sorrow, live through grief, and ultimately
transform us via this journey." - Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz.com

Ken Field is a saxophonist, flautist, and composer. He leads the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, an experimental & improvisational brass band, and is a longtime member of the electronic modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. His solo releases document his work for layered saxophones and his soundtracks for dance and film. Field was named a Finalist in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. He has performed in the US, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, & Japan, and has been awarded residency fellowship grants at the MacDowell Colony (NH), the Ucross Foundation (Wyoming), the Fundación Valparaíso (Spain), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida).

Field composed & produced soundtracks for many of the animated films by his late wife, Karen Aqua, and for Bridgman/Packer Dance. His music is also heard regularly on the children’s television program Sesame Street. He is the host of WMBR Radio’s “The New Edge”, President of the Board of Directors of JazzBoston, former President of the Board of Directors of Tutoring Plus of Cambridge, former member of the HONK! Festival Organizing Committee, and former member & chair of the Cambridge Bicycle Committee. Field is an Applied Microphone Technology Endorser and a Vandoren Performing Artist, and uses Vandoren reeds and mouthpieces for performance and recording.

Ken Field is a saxophonist, flautist, and composer. Since 1988 he has been a member of the electronic modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, with whom he has recorded eight CDs. He leads the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, an experimental & improvisational brass band. His solo releases document his work for layered saxophones and his soundtracks for dance and film.

kenfield.org