Kyo-Shin-An Arts to Present KAMMERRAKU SHOW at Tenri Cultural Institute This Month
By: BWW News Desk Mar. 02, 2017
Kyo-Shin-An Arts' award-winning concert series at the Tenri Cultural Institute in Manhattan features a blend of KSA commissions with World, American and NY premieres, traditional and contemporary music for Japanese instruments and Western repertoire.
KAMMERRAKU SNOW
Sunday, March 26, 2017, 4:00 PM
The Cassatt String Quartet: Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, violins - Ah Ling Neu, viola - Elizabeth Anderson, cello
Yoko Reikano Kimura, koto - James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi.
This program features three commissioned sextets for string quartet, koto and shakuhachi. Between the Leaves, a world premiere by Tokyo-based composer Yoko Sato and the reprise of both Somei Satoh's ethereal Kyoshin and James Nyoraku Schlefer's Haru no Umi Redux- an arrangement of Michiyo Miyagi's famous work for shakuhachi and koto, this version with interwoven string music that embodies the title "The Sea in Spring."
PLUS two world premiere string quartets commissioned by the Cassatt Quartet - Tina Davidson's Render and Sebastian Currier's Lullaby No. 3, Resolving.
Three sextets for shakuhachi, koto and string quartet. Two string quartets. Three world premieres. Five commissions past and present. One glorious concert.
Sunday, March 26, 2017, 4:00 PM at Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A West 13th Street, New York City. Tickets $25/15 at brownpapertickets.com or 1-800-838-3006.
PROGRAM:
Between the Leaves by Yoko Sato (World premiere KSA commission)
Kyoshin by Somei Satoh (2012 KSA commission)
Haru no Umi Redux by James Nyoraku Schlefer (2012 KSA commission)
Render by Tina Davidson (World premiere, commissioned by Susan Grant and Lawrence Maisel for the Cassatt Quartet)
Lullaby No. 3, Resolving by Sebastian Currier (World premiere Cassatt commission)
The CASSATT STRING QUARTET was the first quartet chosen for Juilliard's Young Artists Quartet Program. Since then, they have performed at New York's Alice Tully Hall, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood Music Theater, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Theatre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the Beijing Central Conservatory in China. At the Library of Congress, the Cassatt performed on the library's matched quartet of Stradivarius instruments, and they performed the three complete Beethoven Quartet cycles at the University at Buffalo. The Cassatt has been heard on NPR's Performance Today, Boston's WGBH, and New York's WQXR and WNYC. They have 30 recordings, and were named three times to Alex Ross' 10 best classical recordings of the year in The New Yorker magazine. The quartet is named for the celebrated American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Members include: Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, violins; Ah Ling Neu, viola; and Elizabeth Anderson, cello. www.cassattquartet.com
YOKO REIKANO KIMURA, koto, is an enthusiastic supporter of contemporary music, a frequent collaborator with Western musicians and a performer of classical Japanese music in the Yamada school style. A resident of the US since 2010, Yoko is a founder of Duo YUMENO, with cellist Hikaru Tamaki, working to commission new music and expand the repertoire for these instruments. The Duo received a Chamber Music America Commissioning Award in 2014 and the Kyoto Aoyama Barock Saal Award in 2015. As a soloist, Yoko performed Kin'ichi Nakanoshima's Shamisen Concerto at the National Olympic Memorial Center in 2004 and Daron Hagen's Koto Concerto: Genji with the Euclid Quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Freimann Quartet and the Prairie Ensemble Orchestra in 2013. In 2014, she premiered Kaito Nakahori's Japanese Footbridge for koto and chamber ensemble at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, and in 2015, James Nyoraku Schlefer's Concertante at the Round Top Music Festival. Yoko performs frequently with Kyo-Shin-An Arts and has worked with Heiner Goebbels, the Wien Solisten Trio, and Kenny Endo, among others. University performances have included Harvard, Texas A&M, New England Conservatory, and City University of New York. In addition Yoko has toured in Poland, Switzerland, France, Lithuania, Korea, China, Israel, Qatar, Italy, Turkey and multiple countries in South America. www.yamadaryu.com/reikano
JAMES NYORAKU SCHLEFER is a Grand Master of the shakuhachi and one of only a handful of non-Japanese artists to have achieved this rank. He received the Dai-Shi-Han (Grand Master) certificate in 2001, and his second Shi-Han certificate in 2008, from the Mujuan Dojo in Kyoto. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood and BAM, as well as multiple venues across the country and in Japan, Indonesia, Brazil and Europe. Mr. Schlefer first encountered the shakuhachi in 1979, while working towards a career as a flute player and pursuing an advanced degree in musicology at CUNY (Queens College.) Today, he is considered by his colleagues to be one of most influential Western practitioners of this distinctive art form. As a composer, Mr. Schlefer has written multiple chamber and orchestral works combining Japanese and Western instruments as well as numerous pieces solely for traditional Japanese instruments. Mr. Schlefer is the Artistic Director of Kyo-Shin-An Arts and the curator for the Japanese music series at the Tenri Cultural Institute in NYC. He teaches shakuhachi at Columbia University, a broad spectrum of Western and World music courses at New York City Technical College (CUNY), and performs and lectures at colleges and universities throughout the United States. In December 2015, Mr. Schlefer was recognized by Musical America Worldwide for his work both as a composer and as Artistic Director of Kyo-Shin-An Arts, as one of their "30 Top Professionals and Key Influencers". www.nyoraku.com
YOKO SATO: Since graduating from the Tokyo College of Music, composer Yoko Sato has been based in Tokyo, incorporating intercultural Western and Japanese musical elements, as well as aesthetics into her works. She holds a doctoral degree in music composition from the University of Hawaii and was a recipient of an East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship. Her pieces for traditional Japanese, as well as other Asian instruments, have been commercially released in Japan and in the United States, including a CD that features her compositions for the shamisen. She has also composed several operettas commissioned by regional governments to promote musical activities for the local Japanese communities. Her recent research interests focus on deepening the musical exchange to enhance a mutual understanding and cultivate friendships among people in different cultures and societies. Towards the Ancient Paeckche (2014) was premiered by a Korean-Japanese joint traditional orchestra and she continues her association with the Center for Reconciliation at the Duke Divinity School, where she conducted her dissertation research. www.yokosatomusic.wordpress.com
SOMEI SATOH is a composer of the post-war generation whose hauntingly evocative musical language is a curious fusion of Japanese timbral sensibilities with 19th century Romanticism and electronic technology. He has been deeply influenced by Shintoism, the writings of the Zen Buddhist scholar DT Suzuki, his Japanese cultural heritage as well as the multimedia art forms of the sixties. Satoh's elegant and passionate style convincingly integrates these diverse elements into an inimitably individual approach to contemporary Japanese music. Satoh has succeeded in reshaping his native musical resources in synthesis with Western forms and instrumental sonorities. Being primarily self-taught, Satoh has never been subjected to a formal musical education. He has on occasion, been referred to as a composer of gendai hogaku (contemporary traditional music).
TINA DAVIDSON recently commissioned by Grammy Award-winning violinist, Hilary Hahn, is a highly regarded American composer who creates music that stands out for its emotional depth and lyrical dignity. Lauded for her authentic voice, the New York Times praised her "vivid ear for harmony and colors." OperaNews called her works "transfigured beauty." Over her forty year career, Davidson has been commissioned and performed by well-known ensembles such as National Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, OperaDelaware, VocalEssense, Kronos Quartet, Cassatt Quartet and public television. Her talents have been recognized through the awarding of a number of grants and fellowships, including the prestigious Pew Fellowship. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up in Oneonta, NY, and now lives in central Pennsylvania. www.tinadavidson.com
SEBASTIAN CURRIER: Heralded as "music with a distinctive voice" by The New York Times and as "lyrical, colorful, firmly rooted in tradition, but absolutely new" by The Washington Post, Sebastian Currier's music has been presented at major venues worldwide by acclaimed artists and orchestras.With works spanning across solo, chamber and orchestral genres, Currier's works have been performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Kronos Quartet. Currier's music has been enthusiastically embraced by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter: his "rapturously beautiful" (New York Times) violin concerto Time Machines, commissioned by Ms. Mutter, was premiered by the New York Philharmonic in June 2011, and a recording of the performance was released by Deutsche Grammophon the following September. Currier has received many prestigious awards including the Grawemeyer Award (for the chamber piece Static), Berlin Prize, Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has held residencies at the MacDowell and Yaddo colonies. www.sebastiancurrier.com
KYO-SHIN-AN ARTS: Kyo-Shin-An Arts' is a contemporary music organization with a mission to commission music and present concerts that bring Japanese instruments - specifically koto, shakuhachi and shamisen - to Western classical music. A 2016 and 2013 CMA/ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award winner (small presenter, mixed repertory), Kyo-Shin-An Arts will be presenting its 7h chamber music season at the Tenri Cultural Institute.. KSA works in partnership with established ensembles and Western soloists, bridging two cultures by introducing composers and players alike to the range and virtuosity of Japanese instruments and the musicians who play them. The resulting music provides audiences with a unique introduction to traditional Japanese music within a familiar context and fabulous contemporary music. Current ensemble partners include the Cassatt and Voxare String Quartets in NYC, the Arianna and Ciompi in MO and NC, Ensemble Epomeo, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra of the Swan in the UK. Players of Japanese instruments include Christopher Yohmei Blaisdel, Masayo Ishigure, Yoko Reikano Kimura, Nami Kineie, Yumi Kurosawa, Riley Lee, John Kaizan Neptune, Yoko Nishi, Akihito Obama and James Nyoraku Schlefer. Commissioned composers to date include Victoria Bond, Chad Cannon, Ciara Cornelius, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Daron Hagen, Matthew Harris, William Healy, Kento Iwasaki, Mari Kimura, Angel Lam, Daniel Levitan, Gilda Lyons, James Matheson, Paul Moravec, Mark Nowakowski, Somei Satoh, James Nyoraku Schlefer, Benjamin Verdery and Randall Woolf. www.kyoshinan.org
The excellent acoustics and intimate gallery setting of the Tenri Cultural Institute create a superb setting for listening to chamber music and offer audiences the rare opportunity to hear both traditional and contemporary music from two cultures in a setting similar to the music rooms of the courts and castles of both Europe and Japan. Over 300 years of chamber music tradition are presented throughout this series. Performances feature piano trios and string quartets from the great composers of Europe, music from Japan's Edo period written for shamisen, koto and shakuhachi and contemporary music combining Western and Japanese instruments. www.artsat.tenri.org
Photo Credit: Anna Ablogina
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