About Learning Shakuhachi in the 80s in Tokyo 

When I was 18 years old, I moved to Japan and spent the next 18 years as a member of the Taiko group Ondekoza that connected me with Yokoyama Katsuya. Very limited information was to be found on Shakuhachi, even in Japanese, as we did not have internet yet. 

I lived in Nagasaki prefecture and would travel to Tokyo once a month to take Shakuhachi lessons.  I was not allowed to practice indoors in Ondekoza, I needed to be able to project and play without amplification when we played in large concerts halls. I…

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Summer Rising 

I received a City Artist Corps grant and did a concert with Taiko on August 28th. also held an East Winds Ensemble concert on 9/4 in Bruce's garden both by Isham park. I wanted to thank all the people who came and supported us.

It was wonderful to be able to play again live for audiences - this pandemic is not ending anytime soon, so we take any opportunity to be able to do it outside. Next month, I will be doing a concert in Switzerland on 10/3 in Conthey in the Valias close to Sion.

I wish everyone a good…

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NY Times review 

short review but  better than nothing..

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/arts/music/new-juilliard-ensembles-focus-festival-under-joel-sachs.html?_r=0

 

Then came the first exception to Mr. Sachs’s general avoidance of Japanese instruments, Toshio Hosokawa’s “Voyage X — Nozarashi” (2009), a sort of concerto for shakuhachi, a bamboo flute, and small orchestra. The shakuhachi, played with malleable, expressive attacks, produces a breathy sound, deep in terms of profundity if not pitch.

“One can hear already…

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About the Shakuhachi 

I have discovered this wonderful instrument when I was 18 in Japan. It seems to be an instrument that people respond to in their college years. some have come across it when their were very young but probably because someone in their family played it.

I spent 18 in Japan studying and traveling around Japan and the world. There is a practice in Zen Buddhism of going on a journey for 1000 in the mountains around Kyoto to meditate and as part ofa practice to become a monk.

 also the Komusos would travel…

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New CD : 

 

福田蘭童, 1905–1976 ERATA for actually CD booklet-We apologize for the mistake!!!!! One typo in Japanese: Fukuda Rando Kanji should be:福田蘭童 Ran was misspelled - it was found out only after printing was done...

 

CD is available and on sale tomorrow on Amazon and Cdbaby.com

Note:

 

ERATA for CD booklet-We apologize for the mistake!!!!!One typo in Japanese: Fukuda Rando Kanji should be:福田蘭童Ran was misspelled - it was found out only after printing was done...

福田蘭童, 1905–1976

 

Japan trip 

Looking forward to some concerts in Japan.

Will be performing with different artists and I am looking forward to the different styles that I will get to play with in Tokyo with violin and piano and Hiroshima with Koto and Osaka with Japanese singer Nakata Katsuko

I was looking forward to the Shakuhachi festival, but it does not seem that their budget will allow for me to perform there.

Unlike other past festivals, this Kyoto festival is charging performers to play...

as if paying once way to Japan was not…

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EAst Winds Ensemble New CD

Listen to this single

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