Congratulations to our 2020 Danish Project Support awardee James Budinich!

Under a Fulbright grant with the American Scandinavian Foundation, James will work with the Royal Danish Academy of Music to conduct research on the Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and the Danish New Simplicity movement during the 1960s.  He will also develop a composition for vocalist and chamber ensemble based on the work “Third-Millennium Heart” by Danish poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen. James hopes his research on the New Simplicity movement will build a bridge to new audiences through accessible compositions in which every listener, regardless of musical experience, can discover their own understanding and appreciation.

Here’s an example of James’ work, a piece composed for string quartet titled “Lines, Breaks, and Spaces” which reinterprets the poetic and visual concepts of drawn lines, lines of poetry, breaks between verses and negative space: