Che Buford (he, they) is an NYC-based artist whose work explores creating new narratives within the world of music while engaging in themes of memory and place.
Che performs as a violinist in various musical settings such as traditional orchestras, chamber music, solo, improvisational performance, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Their own work explores the possibilities of timbre and acoustical phenomena and connects them to elements of place, memory, poetry, and the quotidian. Che has had the privilege of creating with artists such as Longleash, The Rhythm Method, New York Philharmonic, Castle of our Skins, mal sounds, Steph Davis, Adama Delphine Fawundu, and Deborah Jack. Their work has been presented and performed in spaces that include Roulette, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Joe’s Pub, Antenna Cloud Farm, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, The DiMenna Center, and David Geffen Hall.
Che is a founding member of Diaphanous Ensemble, a genre-bending composer, improviser, performer collective started with Abby Swidler & Aimée Niemann. Diaphanous premiered four new string quartets by its members in August 2023, and performed with Ioanna Gika as part of Jacolby Satterwhite’s A Metta Prayer, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Sep 2023.
Upcoming projects for the 2023-2024 season include commissions from Icarus Quartet, Loadbang, Deborah Jack, Guitarist, Joseph Ehrenpreis, and violinist Midori.
Che holds a degree from Boston Conservatory at Berklee as a presidential scholar in violin performance where he studied with Rictor Noren. In the fall, They are currently a DMA candidate at Columbia University in Music Composition. When Che isn’t interacting with music, he enjoys taking long walks, cooking vegan food, and thrifting.