Haruki Murakami to be Celebrated with MURAKAMI MIXTAPE Featuring Jason Moran at The Town Hall

The Town Hall Presents 2025-2026 season will feature Murakami Mixtape: An Evening of Music and Spoken Word In Celebration of Acclaimed Author Haruki Murakami. The evening will take place at The Town Hall, with Official Bookseller McNally Jackson Books, on Thursday December 11, 2025 at 7pm. Tickets are now available for Town Hall and Japan Society members in a special pre-sale and launch for the general public on September 26.

Murakami Mixtape is an exclusive evening celebrating the integral connection between music and the life and works of Haruki Murakami - featuring Opening Remarks by Haruki Murakami live and in-person. With Jason Moran, one of the world’s greatest living jazz musicians, and two of Murakami’s closest confidants, Motoyuki Shibata and Roland Kelts, The Town Hall and Japan Society honor Murakami’s career and creations, both as an artist and one of music’s greatest enthusiasts.

The evening will begin with Japan Society President & CEO Joshua W. Walker, PhD. presenting its Japan Society Award to Haruki Murakami on stage. This award honors luminous individuals who have brought the U.S. and Japan closer together through their artistic, business, or governmental work. Past award recipients have included Akira Kurosawa, Bobby Valentine, Caroline Kennedy, George Takei, Hideki Matsui, Mansaku Nomura, Nobu Matsuhisa, Seiji Ozawa, and Yoko Ono.

The legendary Haruki Murakami will then greet and deliver opening remarks to the evening’s attendees. Following the remarks from Murakami, award-winning jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran will take the stage to lead a program of music plucked from Murakami’s own works. Seeded across Murakami’s books are over 300 references to songs spanning from Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart to Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Doors. A MacArthur Fellow with decades of accolades, Moran will bring a curated selection of music from the worlds of Haruki Murakami to life.

Interspersed between Moran and his band, Motoyuki Shibata and Roland Kelts will take the stage. Long-time friends of Haruki Murakami, they will present personal anecdotes about the author, share stories of their times together, and read passages from his works curated as companions to Moran’s music.

Haruki Murakami

is a singular talent. A globally recognized literary icon, his works including Norwegian Wood, 1Q84, and The City and Its Uncertain Walls have been translated into more than 50 languages and are beloved around the world. He is heralded for his thought-provoking prose seamlessly blending real and surreal elements as well as a deep passion for music woven into his books.  Further, from 1974 to 1981, Haruki Murakami owned and operated the now legendary jazz club Peter Cat. Widely recognized as one of the world’s most prolific album collectors, Murakami is believed to own over 10,000 records, and he has written extensive pieces of music criticism that have never been translated from Japanese.