Kai Kubota-Enright is a composer/performer based in Los Angeles.
Their musical output encompasses a variety of works for both concert and film, as well as contributions to various interdisciplinary projects. Their music often incorporates improvisational, electronic, and site-specific elements, and may be found as part of larger multimedia collaborations involving dance, installation art, and projection art. Their concert music primarily focuses on the relationship between sound and spatial environments, both natural and human-made, as well as how these various elements interact with personal memories and subjectivities; drawing from a variety of western and Japanese influences.
Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, they graduated with a bachelors in composition from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, studying composition with Melissa Hui and piano with Sara Laimon. Currently they are pursuing a masters in composition at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, studying with Camae Ayewa. They recently completed a commission for the London Sinfonietta exploring experiments techniques inspired by the work of Pauline Oliveros—asking performers to audiate pitches from ambient noise, as well as attempt to communicate these pitches to each other through telepathy.
In 2018 they received an award from Bow Seat for their piece “Aquas,” which utilizes a motif derived from climate data of the seas and terrain, and have also returned annually as a judge for musical works which respond to the climate crisis. As well, in 2019 they received a SOCAN Foundation Young Composer Award for Isaac, an electroacoustic piece which explored the fragmentation of memory and psyche. From 2021-2022 at McGill they completed a brass quintet “Dream Transmission of Phoenix” as the Composer-in-Residence, and also received a commission from the London Sinfonietta as part of the 2022 ROSL Composition Award.