Kyo-Shin-An-Arts Presents Arianna String Quartet on 4/17

The Arianna String Quartet with Yumi Kurosawa, koto; Yoko Reikano Kimura, shamisen; and James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi will play on Sunday, April 17, 2016, 4:00 PM at Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A West 13th Street, New York City.

Tickets $25 and $15 for students/seniors. brownpapertickets.com or 1-800-838-3006

East meets West in "Dream Corner", James Nyoraku Schlefer's haunting septet and love story forsankyoku trio and string quartet. This dramatic opus in 11 movements combines two iconic ensembles, for the first time, in the dramatic tale of two lovers who meet only when they dream. Plus the always beautiful Debussy "Quatuor".

"A fusion of Eastern traditional ensemble and Western string quartet, Dream Corner is among the most convincing, integrated, and musical fusion of the two ensembles and philosophies. ...the ninth movement was a masterpiece in simplicity ... (an) almost-passacaglia of two declamatory attacks followed by long silences ever so gradually filled the open spaces with achingly gorgeous lines from each performer." - Lee Hartman, KCMetropolis.org, Nov. 10, 2015.

Also featuring KSA's ongoing collaboration with the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers Program, with four new works for koto, shamisen, shakuhachi and string quartet by two students from NY and two from Japan.

The Arianna String Quartet - John McGrosso and Julia Sakharova, violins; Joanna Mendoza, viola; Kurt Baldwin, cello - is the faculty quartet at the University of Missouri St. Louis and the ensemble in residence at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. One of America's finest chamber ensembles, its performances have been praised for "tonal warmth, fastidious balance...expressive vitality" (Chicago Tribune) and "emotional commitment and fluent virtuosity," (Pretoria News, South Africa). Formed in 1992, the ASQ garnered national attention by winning the Grand Prize in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, First Prize in both the Coleman and Carmel Chamber Music Competitions, and were Laureates in the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. In recent years the Arianna has appeared throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia, with frequent visits to Brazil and South Africa. They have collaborated with many of the world's finest musicians, including members of the Vermeer, Tokyo, Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets, and their live performances have been heard on National Public Radio's "Performance Today," and "Live from Music Mountain", which broadcasts to 125 stations in the U.S. and to 35 countries. The ASQ has recorded for Albany Records and Urtext Digital Classics, and has a long-term contract with Centaur Records. Highlights of the 2015-16 season included trips to the Rio Chamber Music Festival and the FEMUSC Festival in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil, live performances on Chicago's WFMT radio, and concerts throughout the United States, including the Sitka Music Festival, and the Madeline Island Music Camp (WI).

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. 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. 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 his company Kyo-Shin-An Arts, as one of their "30 Top Professionals and Key Influencers". www.nyoraku.com

Yoko Reikano Kimura, koto, shamisen and voice, performs classical Japanese music in the Yamada school style and is an active proponent of contemporary music for Japanese instruments. As a soloist, she has performed with a broad variety of artists including Heiner Goebbels, the Wien Soristen Trio, Kyo-Shin-An Arts, the Urbana-Champaign orchestra The Prairie Ensemble, Kenny Endo, and Yasuko Yokoshi, and toured to Poland, Switzerland, France, Lithuania, Korea, China, Israel, Qatar, Italy, Turkey and multiple countries in South America. Ms. Kimura also works extensively with her husband, cellist Hikaru Tamaki, as Duo Yumeno, an ensemble that is a recent recipient of a Chamber Music America Commissioning Award. A graduate of the Tokyo University of the Arts and Music, where she won the top graduation prize, she continued her studies at the NHK School for Young Professionals and the Institute of Traditional Japanese Music. Her main teachers include Kono Kameyama, Akiko Nishigata and a Living National Treasure, Senko Yamabiko. Awards include the First prize at the prestigious 10th Kenjun Memorial National koto Competition and at the Great Wall International Music Competition. Ms. Kimura currently teaches at the Institute of Traditional Japanese Music, an affiliate of Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo.www.yamadaryu.com/reikano/profile/profile.html

Yumi Kurosawa, 20-string koto, was born and raised in Japan, and began studying the 13-stringed-Koto at the age of three with her parents, Kazuo and Chikako Kurosawa. At the age of 15, she began studying the 20-stringed-Koto with Nanae Yoshimura. Kurosawa received first prize at the National Japanese Koto Competition for students in 1989 and 1992, and a scholarship from The Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan in 1998. In addition to the koto, Ms. Kurosawa also studied computer music while attending Keio University. A member of Hougakuten Concert, Tokyo, her Master qualification is Seiha School (style). In addition to her extensive performances in Japan, including appearances at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, and on NHK Broadcast TV, Kurosawa has toured in Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Russia, and the US. Since her arrival to New York City in 2002, Kurosawa has worked within the traditional Japanese and contemporary classical music genre but also collaborated with a range of artists including musicians, dancers and visual designers. The innovative approach in her original compositions is without boundaries, seamlessly blending her traditional training with elements of modern Jazz and electronica. Kurosawa made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2006 at Weill Recital Hall. In 2011 she was principal soloist in Daron Hagen's Koto Concerto: Genji, a Kyo-Shin-An Arts commission, which premiered in New York City, US with the Lark String Quartet and in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK with Orchestra of the Swan. In 2013, Kurosawa was principal soloist for the premier of The Memory Stone by Marty Regan at the Houston Grand Opera. In 2014, she performed Koto Concerto: Genji with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, conductor Naoto Otomo, and she is currently composing music for a Tsuru project at Houston Ballet and Asia Society Texas for a June 2015 premiere. www.yumikuro.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

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. www.artsat.tenri.org

Upcoming program:

May 8, 2016 @ 4:00 PM - Mother's Day Fermata.The return of the international string trio Ensemble Epomeo (Diane Pascal, violin; David Yang, viola; and Kenneth Woods, cello) with James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi and Dan Lippel, guitar. Featuring the world premiere of two Kyo-Shin-An Arts commissions - a shakuhachi quartet by Matthew Harris and 2Blue for shakuhachi and viola by James Nyoraku Schlefer, the NY premiere of The Gift to Urashima Taro for shakuhachi and string trio by Jay Reise, a guitar quartet by Kenneth Woods, and a string trio by Leo Weiner.