Biography

Kenji Anderson (倉林 健児) is Japanese-American teacher, pianist, and writer from Emporia, Kansas. He is currently a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Yakage-cho, Japan, in Okayama prefecture. In Yakage, he teaches English to preschoolers and elementary school students. He is employed by the Yakage Town Hall.

He recently graduated from the Oberlin College and Conservatory double-degree program, receiving a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and a Bachelor of Arts with High Honors in English. At Oberlin Conservatory, he was a student of Robert Shannon.

Kenji writes at the intersection of literature and music. Recently, through his thesis on composer Matthew Aucoin’s operatic adaptation of Sarah Ruhl’s play Eurydice, he combined modes of musical and literary analysis, making way for a new understanding of the operatic form. He has published his writing through Oberlin campus publications and WCLV Ideastream Public Media in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dedicated to the community-building powers of classical music, he has collaborated with instrumentalists, vocalists, dancers, and composers on creative projects. His work explores the boundaries of genre, often setting popular and classical music side-by-side. 

As of August 2024, Kenji will be based in Tokyo.

All color photography of Kenji by Genevieve Dilan, unless stated otherwise.

All black and white photography of Kenji by Owen Do, unless stated otherwise.