KYO-SHIN-AN ARTS Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary

KYO-SHIN-AN ARTS is a contemporary music organization celebrating its 10th Anniversary Season. From groundbreaking to mainstream, over the last decade KSA has built and promoted a wide body of new classical repertoire combining Japanese and Western instruments. Commissions to date total 27 composers for 45 new works. 2018-19 continues KSA's annual five-concert series at the Tenri Cultural Institute in Manhattan and marks the launch of its next decade with a distinctive, two-year "Septet Commissioning Project."

In addition to its regular commissioning, KSA is planning a two-season initiative of four septets for sankyoku trio (shakuhachi, koto, and shamisen with voice) and string quartet. The septet instrumentation is an inspiring combination, rich in the textures and sonorities that showcase the virtuosity of two rigorous traditions. It is also an ultimate cultural marriage - two iconic ensembles that both blossomed during the same historical period, one in the opulent court of the Esterházys and the other in the Imperial palaces of Edo Japan. There is only one extant work for this combination. Bringing four more such septets to the repertoire is a major contribution to the field.

The composers are Daron Hagen and James Nyoraku Schlefer for 2019, premiering at Tenri on April 14, 2019, with the Cassatt Quartet and Yoko Sato and James Matheson for 2020, premiering at Tenri in Spring 2020 with the Arianna Quartet. At this time the project has three committed string quartet partners - the Arianna, Cassatt and Ciompi Quartets. The Arianna and Ciompi Quartets respectively anticipate performances at the University of St. Louis Missouri and Duke University.

THE 2018-2019 CONCERT SERIES AT TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE:

September 30, 2018 at 4PM: Cello-Hachi, with internationally acclaimed cellist Kenneth Woods and shakuhachi Grand Master James Nyoraku Schlefer, is a program of spellbinding duos and solos for cello and shakuhachi. It will feature New York, American and World premieres by Michio Mamiya, Sophie Pope, Marty Regan and James Nyoraku Schlefer (world premiere), plus solo works for both instruments.

October 28, 2018 at 4PM: Crimson Leaves, Neave Trio: Anna Williams, violin; Mikhail Veselov, cello; and Eri Nakamura, piano; with James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi. This highly international program features works for shakuhachi and piano trio by the Iranian composer Amir Eslami and the Hong-Kong based Adrian Hon Chung Lam plus a piano trio by Astor Piazzolla.

February 10, 2019 at 4PM: Snowdrop Moment, Tomoko Sugawara, Harp and Kugo (Japanese Harp) and James Nyoraku Schlefer. Contemporary and traditional duos for harp and shakuhachi by Robert Lombardo, Anne Boyd, Yao Heng-lu, Kikuko Matsumoto (world premiere) and others.

March 10, 2019 at 4PM: Spring Green, Hub New Music: Michael Avitabile, flute; David Dziardziel, clarinet; Zenas Hsu, violin; Jesse Christesen, cello; and James Nyoraku Schefer, shakuhachi. This exciting, young quartet brings their own commissions with shakuhachi to KSA. Quintets by Chad Cannon, Takuma Itoh, Kojiro Umezaki plus quartets by Anna Clyne, Angelica Negron and Judd Greenstein.

April 14, 2019 at 4PM: Kammerraku Anniversary, Cassatt String Quartet: Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower, violins; Ah Ling Neu, viola; Elizabeth Anderson, cello; with Yoko Reikano Kimura, shamisen and voice; Sumie Kaneko, koto and voice; and James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi. The first of the 10th Anniversary septet concerts. World premieres by Schlefer and Daron Hagen, plus the Ravel quartet.

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 10h 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. Concerts feature a blend of KSA commissions with World, American and NY premieres, traditional and contemporary music for Japanese instruments and Western repertoire. Current ensemble partners include the Cassatt and Voxare String Quartets in NYC, the Arianna and Ciompi in MO and NC, Ensemble Epomeo, Sybarite5, 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, Douglas j Cuomo, 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, Yoko Sato, Somei Satoh, James Nyoraku Schlefer, Benjamin Verdery, Aleksandra Vrebalov and Randall Woolf, among others. www.kyoshinan.org

JAMES NYORAKU SCHLEFER, KSA Artistic director, 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. Schlefer first encountered the shakuhachi in 1979, while working towards a career as a flute player and pursuing an advanced degree in musicology. Today he is considered by his colleagues to be one of most influential Western practitioners of this distinctive art form. Known to his students as Nyoraku sensei, Schlefer established his own dojo in NYC in 1996. He also teaches shakuhachi at Columbia University, 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). His orchestral music can be heard on the recording Spring Sounds Spring Season MSR Classics. www.nyoraku.com

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. http://artsat.tenri.org/.