Shakuhachi Recital | Kaoru Kakizakai — Music

Serving as a counterpoint to the appearance of the Ensemble Intégrales in the “Traditions and Contemporary Idioms” cycle, this concert spotlights aspects of the main Japanese musical traditions. The shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo flute with close links to Zen Buddhism and a history which extends back to the Medieval period and beyond, has in the 20th century enchanted a number of Japanese composers and found a place in contemporary Japanese music. This concert of the shakuhachi virtuoso Kaoru Kakizakai will embrace both the traditional repertoire and representative samples of contemporary compositions.

Program

虚空 Koku (traditional)
打波 Daha (traditional)
産安 San'an (traditional)
手向 Tamuke (traditional)
鹿の遠音 Shika no Tone (traditional)
鶴の巣籠り Tsuru no Sugomori (traditional)
桔梗幻想曲 Kikyo Gensoukyoku (Rando Fukuda)
旅人の唄 Tabibito no Uta (Rando Fukuda)
竹籟五章 Chikurai Gosho (Makoto Moroi)
魔切り Makiri (Katsuya Yokoyama)
片足鳥居の映像 Kataashi Torii no Eizou (Toshinao Sato)
山越 (traditional)

Kaoru Kakizakai (b. Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, 1959) is an internationally renowned player and teacher of the shakuhachi, a traditional vertical bamboo flute of Japan.

Kakizakai studied under and recorded with Yokoyama Katsuya. He graduated from the NHK Traditional Music Conservatory and was a past winner of the Kumamoto All Japan Hogaku competition. Kakizakai has performed widely in Japan and abroad, including as shakuhachi soloist in Toru Takemitsu's November Steps with the NHK Symphony Orchestra. As of 2006, he is a research fellow at the Tokyo College of Music. He is also full-time instructor for the International Shakuhachi Kenshukan and NHK Culture Centre, and President of the International Shakuhachi Kenshu-kan Chichibu School and Higashi Yamato School. He is a member of the regular faculty of the Shakuhachi Summer Camp of the Rockies in Colorado (USA).

Parallel Event