Clarinetist James Townley Shields Makes His Recording Debut with Cookbook: Works by Kenji Bunch

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Clarinetist James Townley Shields Makes His Recording Debut with Cookbook: Works by Kenji Bunch

Musica Solis releases the debut album of acclaimed performer, composer, educator, and arts leader James Townley Shields, featuring the chamber music of American composer Kenji Bunch

 

NEW YORK, NY — On August 21, 2026, Musica Solis announces the release of Cookbook: Works by Kenji Bunch, the debut recording of acclaimed clarinetist James Townley Shields.

With more than 25 years of experience as a performer, composer, educator, and arts leader, Shields has built a career around adventurous programming, exceptional artistry, and deep connections with audiences and communities. His debut recording brings together his artistry as a clarinetist with the music of Kenji Bunch, an acclaimed American composer and violist whose work Shields has championed and whose music provides the foundation for this deeply personal project.

 

"This recording is the result of the dedication of a group of people who share a commitment to building the discography of classical music and to reminding the world that ours is a living art form.” — James Townley Shields

The album features Shields with pianist Monica Ohuchi, the New York City–based string quartet The Overlook, and Bunch himself on viola. The four works on the recording explore very different dimensions of the clarinet, from the playful culinary imagery of the title work to the haunting fragility of memory in Drift and the powerful sonorities of the bass clarinet in Industrial Strength.

At the center of the project is Cookbook for Clarinet and String Quartet (2025), a new arrangement of Bunch’s 2004 work originally written for clarinet and piano. Shields conceived and commissioned the string quartet version specifically for this recording, making the album not only a performance project but an expansion of the clarinet repertoire.

SHIELDS AND BUNCH: AN ARTIST-DRIVEN COLLABORATION: The story behind Cookbook is ultimately one of artistic collaboration. Shields approached Bunch’s music not simply as a performer, but as an artist deeply invested in the possibilities of the clarinet and in expanding its contemporary repertoire. His decision to create a recording devoted to Bunch’s chamber music led directly to the new string quartet arrangement of Cookbook, commissioned for the project.

For Bunch, the recording brings together four works that span more than a decade of his compositional output and demonstrate his distinctive approach to rhythm, color, humor, lyricism, and emotional expression. The result is a meeting of two established artists at an important moment: a debut recording from a clarinetist with decades of performance and leadership experience, and a portrait of a composer whose music continually challenges and expands the boundaries of contemporary chamber music.

 

“I’m immensely grateful to the wonderful James Shields for this idea of a recording devoted to my chamber music for clarinet.”— Kenji Bunch 

 

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ABOUT- JAMES TOWNLY SHIELDS

A DEBUT DECADES IN THE MAKING: Although Cookbook is Shields’ first album as a recording artist, it comes after more than two decades at the highest levels of musical performance and arts leadership.

Hailed as “the best clarinetist in Oregon” by Oregon ArtsWatch, Shields studied at The Juilliard School with Ricardo Morales, Principal Clarinet of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He went on to win the position of Principal Clarinet of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in Albuquerque while completing a master’s degree in composition at the University of New Mexico.

In 2010, Shields became Associate Artistic Director of Chatter, a weekly music and poetry series that has grown into an organization presenting more than 100 concerts annually in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. In 2011, he was appointed Principal Clarinet and Basset Horn with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, while continuing an active career that took him between Toronto, Albuquerque, and major chamber music festivals and orchestras throughout North America. His guest appearances have included performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada, Chamber Music Northwest, Aspen Music Festival, Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival, and Astoria Music Festival, among others. In 2016, Shields became Principal Clarinet of the Oregon Symphony, a position he held for ten years while maintaining an active presence in the Portland chamber music community through Chatter, Fear No Music, 45th Parallel Universe, Third Angle, and numerous festivals and concert series. Shields and his wife, violinist Emily Cole, were named All Classical Radio Artists-in-Residence in 2024 and 2025.

In 2024, building on his decades of experience with Chatter in Albuquerque, Shields established Chatter PDX, which has quickly become a vital hub for chamber music in Portland, attracting a dedicated weekly audience and establishing an ambitious new model for presenting live music. His work as an educator includes teaching clarinet and coaching chamber music through his private studio and positions with Reed College, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony.

 

 

TRACK LISTING

[1-4] Cookbook for Clarinet and String Quartet (2025) Originally for Clarinet and Piano (2004)

I. Smokehouse [5:04]
II. Bubbles [3:35]
III. Heirloom [6:28]
IV. La ultima noche en la casa del Flamenco [6:14]

James Shields, Clarinet | The Overlook

[5] Drift (2006) [12:21]

James Townley Shields, Clarinet | Kenji Bunch, Viola | Monica Ohuchi, Piano

 

[6-8] Industrial Strength (2011)

I. Mechanical [4:10]
II. Vacant, still [6:11]
III. Fast, persistent [3:02]

James Townley Shields, Bass Clarinet | Monica Ohuchi, Piano

[9] Lament (2003/2007) [7:35]

James Townley Shields, Clarinet | The Overlook

 

[Total Time: 54:40] 

 

PROGRAM NOTES

PERFORMERS

Kenji Bunch (b. 1973) is an American composer and violist whose music has been performed by more than sixty American orchestras and by chamber musicians on six continents. His music draws on a broad range of influences, including jazz, folk, popular, and contemporary classical traditions. Bunch serves as Artistic Director of Fear No Music and teaches at Portland State University, Reed College, and the Portland Youth Philharmonic. The works on Cookbook demonstrate his distinctive ability to combine rhythmic vitality, lyricism, humor, dramatic energy, and emotional depth.

Monica Ohuchi is a pianist and Executive Director of Fear No Music, which she co-directs with her husband, composer Kenji Bunch. She holds advanced degrees from The Juilliard School and serves as Director of Music Performance at Reed College.

The Overlook is a New York City–based string quartet comprising violinists Monica Davis and Yezu Woo, violist Angela Pickett, and cellist Laura Metcalf. The ensemble is recognized for imaginative programming and its commitment to contemporary and new music.

 

 

ALBUM DETAILS

Artists: James Townley Shields, Monica Ohuchi, The Overlook, Kenji Bunch
Composer: Kenji Bunch

Producer and Editor: James Townley Shields
Recording & Mixing Engineer: Justin Phelps 
Mastering Engineer: Bill Siegmund
Recorded at All Classical Radio’s James DePreist Recording Studio and Irving Levin Performance Hall.
Recording Dates: November 3–4, 2025

Label: Musica Solis
Catalog No.: MS202608
UPC: 824296318584
Release Date: August 21, 2026
Total Time: [54:40] 

PRESS CONTACT 

Sunny Kang
Founder & President of Musica Solis
646-724-6349

For press inquiries and interview requests: contact@musicasolis.com