Kyo-Shin-An Arts Continues its 11th Season of Chamber Concerts With WINTER LIGHT

KYO-SHIN-AN ARTS continues its 11th season of chamber concerts combining Japanese and Western instruments with WINTER LIGHT featuring Duo Yumeno (Yoko Reikano Kimura, koto and Hikaru Tamaki, cello) plus David Yang, viola and James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi. Duos, trios and quartets with KSA commissions by Debra Kaye and Salina Fisher.

Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 4:00 PM
Tenri Cultural Institute
43A West 13 Street, Manhattan

TICKETS:

musae.me
$25 advance | $30 door
$10 off for students, seniors; under 12 free.
Limited space - advance purchase recommended

PROGRAM

But Beautiful by Takuma Itoh (koto and cello)
Paraphase by Toshi Ichiyanagi (shamisen and cello)
2Blue by James Nyoraku Schlefer (shakuhachi and viola)
Between, a new KSA commission by Salina Fisher (koto, shakuhachi, viola and cello)
Three Zen Poems, a new KSA commission by Debra Kaye (shakuhachi, viola and cello)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

DUO YUMENO features New York based koto and shamisen player and singer Yoko Reikano Kimura and cellist Hikaru Tamaki. Together they create a singular fusion sound, inspired by tradition but with a contemporary sensibility. In 2014, they were awarded the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program grant, and in 2015, received the Aoyama Baroque Saal Award. The duo has commissioned new works that blend Eastern and Western traditions from Toshi Ichiyanagi, Daron Hagen, Marty Regan, Yoko Sato, Elizabeth Brown, Takuma Itoh and Kaito Nakahori. Kimura and Tamaki first collaborated in 2008 and have been performing together regularly throughout the US and Japan including an annual Japan tour including Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nara. They have performed at the United Nations, New England Conservatory, Japan Society, Renaissance Society of Chicago, Clark Art Institute, John F. Kennedy Center, Rubin Museum of Art, Princeton University and the University of Hawaii. The duo performed its 10th anniversary recital to a sold-out audience at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2019. As a cultural ambassador of Japanese music, the duo has performed in Cambridge, UK; Istanbul, Turkey; Bogota, Colombia; and Trinidad and Tobago. duoyumeno.com

DAVID YANG, VIOLA. The recipient of an artist fellowship from the Independence Foundation awarded to a small number of exceptional artists, violist David Yang has been called "a conduit for music" and his playing described as "lithe and expressive" in the Strad Magazine. A renaissance man, he has forged a career that is a blend of performing, composition, and storytelling. David has been heard in collaboration with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Jasper, Miro, Pro Arte, Vermeer, and Tokyo String Quartets and Apple Hill Chamber Players, Trio Solisti, and Eroica Piano Trios. Concert highlights include concertos in Canada and Great Britain along with recitals in Italy, the UK, and throughout the USA. As an active advocate of new music, he has commissioned dozens of works. Yang is the Artistic Director of the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival (Boston), Ashburton Chamber Music Festival (England), and Director of Chamber Music at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). In his role as leader of the Auricoalae Storytelling and Music Troupe he developed a residency program to foster the creation of new compositions by public school students. As a member of the internationally acclaimed string trio Ensemble Epomeo, based in the United Kingdom, whose premiere recording was designated "Critic's Choice" in Gramophone. Their second CD included the music of Schnittke, Penderecki, and Kurtag and their third recording of Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht received universal acclaim. David has also recorded for Avie, New Focus, and Somm.

JAMES NYORAKU SCHLEFER, SHAKUHACHI, 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

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

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

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/