East Studio Building, JS327
Biography
Kurt Muroki is professor of double bass at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
An artist member with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he began his musical studies on the violin at the age of six and subsequently performed concerti with the Honolulu Symphony and the Maui Symphony. He went on to study the double bass at the age of 13 and entered the Juilliard School of Music at the age of 17, studying with his Homer R. Mensch.
At the age of 21, Muroki began performing with the internationally renowned Sejong Soloists under ICM Management. He has performed with the Jupiter Chamber Players, Speculum Musicae, Ensemble Sospeso, Sequitur, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Tokyo Opera Nomori, New York City Ballet, 92nd St. Y, Bargemusic, and in the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center.
His festival appearances include the Marlboro Music Festival, Festival L'Autonne at IRCAM, and the Aspen Music Festival, among others.
He is also active playing on soundtracks for movies and commercials, with titles including the Oscar-winning film The Departed, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Hitch, Julie and Julia, The Manchurian Candidate, and Moonrise Kingdom. He has collaborated on albums and live concerts including projects with such artists as The Who, Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Itzhak Perlman.
Muroki has won numerous competitions, including first prize in the Aspen Music Festival double bass competition, the Honolulu Symphony Young Artists competition, and becoming the first bassist to win the New World Symphony concerto competition. He has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Tokyo, and Orion quartets, Ensemble Wein-Berlin, Jaime Laredo, Lynn Harrell, Maurice Bourgue, Toru Takemitsu, Peter Schickele, John Zorn, and Brian Ferneyhough, among others, and has performed concerto tours throughout Asia and the United States.
Muroki is also on the faculties of Stony Brook University, the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. He has been a judge at the Yale Gordon Competition at Peabody Conservatory, American String Teachers Association, and others. He is on the board of directors of the International Society of Bassists and is a D'Addario Strings artist.
He plays on a double bass once owned by the famous double bassist Domenico Dragonetti and attributed to Nicolo Amati circa 1665.