About

PhD, musicology, Brandeis University
MFA, musicology, Brandeis University
MSM, choral conducting, University of Notre Dame
MMus, voice performance, Stony Brook University
BA, music, University of Hawaii at Mānoa

Zen Tadashi Kuriyama, PhD, is a musicologist, choral conductor, and singer who currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of the College Choir at Bates College. One of the last protégés of conductor and interdisciplinary artist Carmen-Helena Téllez, Zen’s cross-disciplinary scholarship engages with the fields of musicology, Jewish studies, Christian sacred music, liturgical theology, affect theory, and performance. He is writing his first book, Jewishness and an English Sound: Gerald Finzi and Twentieth-Century English Nationalism. Before coming to Bates, Zen was Assistant Professor of Music History at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. 

Publications 

Monograph-length publications

Kuriyama, Zen. “Englishness, Jewishness, and the English Sound: Gerald Finzi and the English Musical Renaissance.” PhD Diss, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2024.
[ISBN: 9798384049999] (Committee: Emily Frey, Susan Youens, Laura Jockusch) 

Book Chapters

“RESIGNATION and Virgil Thomson’s Hymns from the Old South.” Christian Sacred Music in the Americas. Ed. Andrew Shenton & Joanna Smolko. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. (peer reviewed) 

Articles and Essays

“Gerald Finzi and the English Musical Renaissance.” The Finzi Journal (UK). December 2018. Ed. Martin Bussey. (peer reviewed)

Critical Edition Work

Manuscript-to-software notation input and proofreading for critical editions of Sebastian Knüpfer’s vocal-orchestral works, published by the American Institute of Musicology. Editorial board for edition: Peter Wollny, Mary Frandsen, & Paul Walker. Summer, 2018 & 2019. (peer reviewed)

Invited Lectures, Talks, & Workshops 

“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.

“Faure’s Requiem in its musical and theological contexts.” Harvard Catholic Forum/Harvard Catholic Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. November 7, 2024. 

“Finzi, Thorpe Davie, and St Andrews.” University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK. February 11, 2023. 

“Gerald Finzi and the Art of English Song.” School of Music at Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN. Two-Day Residency (lecture, lecture recital, workshop, and masterclass). April 13 & 14, 2021. 

‘“Dear Ceddie,”: Discovering Gerald Finzi through his correspondence with St Andrews’ Master of Music, Cedric Thorpe Davie.” University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK. October 9, 2019. 

“Gerald Finzi and the English Musical Renaissance.” St Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN. February 4, 2019. 

For full CV, see below:

Curriculum Vitae