Wednesday, May 25, 2016

June 9th, 2016: Duo YUMENO perform "Send off at Yellow Crane Tower / 黄鶴楼"


If you love the sound of the cello and the koto, come and enjoy the Duo Yumeno concert at Densho Hall on June 9. This concert will surprise and excite you. Combining traditional pieces with new compositions commissioned just for them, you will discover a new world of music. 

Proceeds from the Duo Yumeno concert will be donated by Cantabile Kojimachi to CWAJ Scholarships & Education programs and Fukushima Relief Projects.

WHEN: June 9, Thursday, Time: 7:00 pm (doors open 6:30 pm)
WHERE: Densho Hall, Shibuya Cultural Center Owada

Ticket price:
3,000 yen (in advance), 3,500 yen (at door)、1,000 yen (students)

CWAJ members can purchase tickets at the May luncheon, or contact CWAJ member Jeannie Ohmae.

For further information, please contact Cantabile Kojimachi:
          Tel: 080-5694-5797, or 03-6753-2822
          Email: cantabile-k@keb.biglobe.ne.jp

Program notes:

Send off at Yellow Crane Tower is based on a Japanese translation of a poem by Li Bai (705-762), widely proclaimed as one of China’s most influential poets. The Yellow Crane Tower, known as Huáng Hè Lóu in Chinese, was built in 223 AD and reconstructed in 1981. It stands on Sheshan (Snake Hill), at the bank of the Yangtze River in the Wuchang District of Hubei province. The poem was written on the occasion of Li Bai parting with his friend and poetic colleague Meng Haoron.

It is cast in a large-scale ABA1 form that echoes a musical architecture known as tegotomono, which is found in sankyoku (chamber music for a trio of Japanese instruments that flourished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) repertoire. This form consists of a mae-uta (opening song), tegoto (virtuosic instrumental interlude), and ato-uta (ending song). Set quite low in the range, the vocal line employs characteristic musical gestures found in a traditional Japanese singing style known as jiuta. The opening measures presents a pensive, somehow nostalgic melody in the koto, providing the primary melodic material that reappears throughout the work in a variety of guises.

Text and English translation

故人西のかた、黄鶴楼を辞し
烟花三月揚州に下る
孤帆の遠泳碧空に月
唯だ見る長江の天祭
流るるを

At Yellow Tower in the west 
My old friend says farewell;
In the mist and flowers of spring 
He goes down to Yangzhou;
Lonely sail, distant shadow,
Vanish in blue emptiness;
All I see is the great river 
Flowing into the far horizon.

– translated by Yang Xianyi


Tuesday, May 24, 2016

June 5th, 2016: World premiere of "Still (2016)" at Haifa University, Israel

Kiku Day gives the world premiere of my solo work for shakuhachi, Still (2016)

WHEN: June 5th, 2016, 2:30PM
WHERE: Haifa University, Rm. 207

The ninth concert of the University Concert Series Music Department welcomes Kiku Day: http://www.kikuday.com

Free admission
Contact: Michal Golan 048288821


Program notes

I happened to be in Paris during the terror attacks of November 2015. Three days after those horrific incidents, at 12:00PM on November 16, 2015, three minutes of silence was observed all over Europe to honor those victims who lost their precious lives. At that moment, I was at Gare du Nord station. Can you imagine what it was like to witness Paris–the actual place where the unforgettable event occurred!–coming to an absolute standstill? No movement, no noise, and no activity; simply stillness. Those three minutes of stillness will forever be etched in my memory. This work is a musical homage to those who lost their lives that day.


Monday, May 23, 2016

May 25th, 2016: World premiere of "shadowspot" in Lima, Peru

World premiere of shadowspot in Lima, Peru

My colleague Mariana Gariazzo will give the world premiere of shadowspot for solo alto flute at XXXI International Flute Festival in Lima, Peru.

When: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 7:30 pm
Where: Auditorio Dai Hall, Centro Cutural Peruano Japonés
http://www.cnm.edu.pe/SitePages/Noticia.aspx?NewID=207

Sunday, May 22, 2016

May 22nd, 2016: World premiere of "Silent Cry of a Heron" in Odense, Denmark

Kiku Day and Kenneth Larsen present the world premiere of Silent Cry of a Heron (2016) for shakuhachi and B clarinet, in Odense, Denmark.

WHERE: Carl Nielsen Museum, Odense Denmark
WHEN: May 22nd, 2016, 11:00AM