A Series of Chamber Music Concerts from Two Classical Traditions, Europe and Japan
Tenri Cultural Institute presents
ARTS AT TENRI
Kyo-Shin-An Arts and Arts at Tenri present
BAMBOO FOREST
Kyo-Shin-An Arts’ 2021-22 Season continues LIVE at Tenri with
An all-shakuhachi program!
featuring the American premiere of Shakuhachi Five
by renowned Japanese composer Dai Fujikura
Plus duos and trios by
Elizabeth Brown, Fukuda Rando and James Nyoraku Schlefer
Performed by five world-class shakuhachi artists -
all of them New Yorkers!
Elizabeth Brown, Marco Lienhard, Ralph Samuelson,
James Nyoraku Schlefer and Zac Zinger
Sunday, November 14, 2021 at 4:00 PM
All Tickets are $20
All ticket holders must be fully vaccinated and wear masks at the performance.
Proof of vaccination will be required.
Unvaccinated audience will not be admitted.
Sadly, we are unable to accommodate children under 12 at this time.
Tickets will be refunded in the event of illness or quarantine due to Covid-19.
PROGRAM
Shakuhachi Duets from Isle Royale (2005) Elizabeth Brown (b.1953)
Tone no Funauta “Boat Song of Tohne” Fukuda Rando (1906-1967)
Kumoijishi "Lions in the Clouds” TraditionalSlow Muse (2021) James Nyoraku Schlefer (b.1956)
Shakuhachi Five (2019) Dai Fujikura (b.1977)
a Kyo-Shin-An Arts co-commission – American Premiere
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Elizabeth Brown combines a composing career with a diverse performance life, playing flute, shakuhachi, and theremin in a wide variety of musical circles. Her music has been featured at World Shakuhachi Festivals in London, Kyoto, Prague, Sydney, and New York City. She writes extensively for Japanese traditional instruments, and was a grand prize winner in the Makino Yutaka Composition Competition and a winner in the Senzoku Gakuen Shakuhachi Composition Competition. Her music has been performed in Japan by Pro Musica Nipponia, Reigakusha, and Orchestra Asia. A Juilliard graduate and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Brown has received grants, awards and commissions from the Asian Cultural Council, Japan/US Friendship Commission, Japan Foundation, Music from Japan, Orpheus, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, Newband, Momenta Quartet, Sylvan Winds, Castle of Our Skins, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Barlow Foundation, Cary Trust, NewMusicUSA, NYSCA, and NYFA. She was a Fellow at Bellagio and at the MacDowell Colony, and Artist-in-Residence at the Hanoi National Conservatory and in Grand Canyon National Park. Brown studied shakuhachi with Ralph Samuelson, Yamato Shud?, and Mizuno Koumei. ElizabethBrownComposer.com
Marco Lienhard has been the director of Taikoza and East Winds Ensemble since 1995. As a member of the famed group Ondekoza, he lived and performed in Japan for 18 years (1981-1998). With Ondekoza, he mastered the Taiko, the Shinobue, the Noh flute and the Shakuhachi (with Masters Katsuya Yokoyama and Teruo Furuya). In 1995, Lienhard was the Shakuhachi soloist for the NYC Opera’s premiere of the Opera ''Kinkakuji'' and a soloist with the Juilliard New Music Ensemble. For the premiere of “Voyage X”. He performs and teaches internationally (Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada, etc.). He has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, Osaka Festival Hall, Madison Square Garden, Tchaikovsky Hall and International Performing Center in Moscow, among others. He has recorded over 30 CDs and published a book about the Shinobue. He also recorded music for the award-winning Nintendo Wii games: Red Steel 1 and 2. Lienhard was nominated five times for the “Just Plain Folks Awards in 2014 and in 2019 for best songs, best album for Instrumental and Asian Music. MarcoLienhard.com and Taikoza.com
Ralph Samuelson was trained in the classical tradition of the Kinko School of shakuhachi by the late Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi as well as by Shudo Yamato and Kodo Araki V, both in Japan and in the graduate world music program at Wesleyan University. He performs traditional and contemporary music throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, and has recorded for CBS Masterworks, Lyrichord, Music of the World, Tzadik, XI Records, Pogus, and other labels. He was the shakuhachi soloist in the New York City Ballet production of Jerome Robbins’ "Watermill" with music by Teiji Ito, and his "Flutes of Hope” ensemble commemorating the victims of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan is presented annually in New York at venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He has been a periodic artist-in-residence at the Lou Harrison House in Joshua Tree, California, and is senior advisor and former director of the Asian Cultural Council.
James Nyoraku Schlefer received the shakuhachi 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. Schlefer first encountered the shakuhachi in 1979, while working towards a career as a flute player and pursuing an advanced degree in musicology. He established his own dojo in NYC in 1996. He taught shakuhachi at Columbia University for a decade, teaches a broad spectrum of Western and World music courses at New York City College of Technology (CUNY), and performs and lectures at colleges and universities throughout the United States. As a composer, Schlefer has written multiple chamber and orchestral works combining Japanese and Western instruments as well as numerous pieces solely for traditional Japanese instruments. In December 2015, he was recognized by Musical America Worldwide as one of their “30 Top Professionals and Key Influencers” for his work both as a composer and Artistic Director of Kyo-Shin-An Arts. His writings about the shakuhachi and his career were published in 2018 on NewMusicBox and he was profiled by the National Endowment for the Arts’ “Arts Works Blog” in May 2016. His programming for Kyo-Shin-An Arts has also been recognized with two CMA/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming (2013 and 2016). nyoraku.com
Zac Zinger is an award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist from NYC known for his innovative fusion of jazz with traditional Asian music and his compositions for major video game soundtracks such as Street Fighter V, PubG Mobile, and Jump Force. He has received four consecutive ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards (2012-2015); the Johnny Mandel Prize (2012); 1st place, USA Songwriting Competition: Jazz (2020); 1st place, Tribeca New Music Competition (2021); two Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composer Awards (2009, 2010); a Salon De Virtuosi Career Grant (2020); and a grant from the Asian Cultural Council (2016). A student of Kinko Ryu with Ralph Samuelson, Zac also spent five months in 2017 on a fellowship in Japan to study alternative styles of traditional shakuhachi with teachers Obama Akihito, Sogawa Kinya, and Zenyoji Keisuke. He performed and spoke at the 2018 World Shakuhachi Festival on the subjects of chromaticism and jazz on the shakuhachi, and has also given talks on video game composition at Game Sound Con, Game-a-Con, Play NYC, Captivate Convention, St. John’s University, Five Towns College, and Playcrafting at Microsoft. In addition to shakuhachi, Zac is a saxophonist and multi-reeds player. He has been credited for musical contributions to 47 commercial music releases and counting, and has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Sony Hall with artists including Tituss Burgess, Adam Neely, the 8-Bit Big Band, and Nobuo Uematsu. zaczinger.com
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE AND KYO-SHIN-AN ARTS PRESENT 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. artsat.tenri.org