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| Photo by Andrea Day |
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| Snail in Hotensia |
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| Photo by Andrea Day |
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| Photo by Henry Kaiser |
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| Denmark seen from the sky |
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This is a picture taken by Henrik Bundgaard of the performance of Takemitsu Toru's November Steps.
Conductor: Lan Shui
Shakuhachi: Kiku Day
Biwa: Ueda Junko
Odense Symphony Orchestra
25 January 2007
Biography
I am a ji-nashi shakuhachi (hocchiku) player from Copenhagen, Denmark with American, Japanese, Irish and Russian roots.
I began my piano studies at the age of 3, playing classical music. At the age of 16 I turned to the flute.
One particularly strong component in my personality has always been a
longing to explore the world and exploring how the 'world' is constructed by us humans. After finishing school I thus decided to
take a break from flute practice for the entrance exam at the Royal Danish
Conservatory and left instead for Asia via the Trans-Siberian railway. After some time in Russia,
Mongolia, China, East Turkestan, and Tibet, I ended up in Tokyo,
where I decided to stay in order to study the ji-nashi shakuhachi and
the honkyoku repertoire with Okuda Atsuya. At the same time I
studied the Japanese language and am now fluent in its use. In the beginning of my stay in Japan, I studied a myriad of things such as sumi-e (brush painting), ikebana, challigraphy, how to wear a kimono, cha-dô (tea ceremony) and travel all over the country to watch and participate in festivals, i finally narrowed it down to shakuhachi.
I was extremely fortunate and privileged to be accepted as a student by Okuda. I wanted to learn honkyoku, and that is the only thing he teaches. Had it been necessary for me to first go through sankyoku and the other musical genres played on the shakuhachi in order to come to honkyoku, I would probably have gone back to playing the flute. Also I was lucky I encountered a teacher in ji-nashi shakuhachi. My studies with Okuda lasted for ten years, between 1989 and 1999, during which time I based myself in Japan but spent half of the year travelling to other Asian countries, Oceania, and Central America.
©Atsuo Hashimoto
In 1997 I decided to move back to Europe. The first three years I spent
in Geneva, Switzerland - going to Japan half the time. The next three I spent in London, UK where I took my BA in
ethnomusicology at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University
of London), studying with such scholars as David Hughes, Keith Howard,
Owen Wright, Rachel Harris et al. During my studies there I became more and more interested
in contemporary music and began to study improvisation with Clive Bell,
composition with Daniel Chua at King’s College, London, while also
doing research on the underground music scene in Tokyo and
Ôsaka.
I completed my Masters in Fine Art in Performance and Literature at Mills College, Oakland, California, USA in May 2005. My main focus was improvisation and the performance of contemporary music on ji-nashi shakuhachi. I studied improvisation, performance and composition with Fred Frith, Joëlle Léandre, Anne LeBaron and Alvin Curran, and my instrumental teacher was the brilliant sax player Jon Raskin from the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. It was a pleasure to be a part of the music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. I played with many brilliant musicians playing electronics, 'normal' western instruments, to kora, percussionists using everything they felt had a good sound to a huge long instrument with strings spanned out several meters.
I am now doing a Ph.D. at SOAS in London. The main focus will again be performance of contemporary music on ji-nashi shakuhachi. I will work with several composers in order to create a repertoire that is consciously created for the character of the ji-nashi shakuhachi. Presently, I am working with Roxanna Panufnik, Frank Denyer, Yumi Hara Cawkwell, Mogens Christensen and Takahashi Yûji. I am excited about creating this new repertoire, but also to do more research into the development of the ji-nashi shakuhachi as we know it today. What is the difference is between the Edo period shakuhachi and those ji-nashi shakuhachi we play today.
Aside from my academic research where my main focuses has been music
of Japan, including traditional musical and theatrical genres, contemporary
music (classical and hôgaku), underground and popular music, another of my main goals is to further
improve my playing skills on the ji-nashi shakuhachi, with regard
not only to interpreting the honkyoku repertoire, but also contemporary
compositions and improvisations. I hope to succeed in taking ji-nashi
shakuhachi playing to a new level.
Recently, I have been working on creating a space for the shakuhachi in Europe. I have initiated the organisation of the first Pan-European Shakuhachi Summer School with Koto and Shamisen. It is co-organised with Michael Coxall and SOAS Music Department, and all the teachers have helped greatly with useful input. The Summer School will take place 19th-22nd July 2006. More information here:
www.shakuhachisummer-soas.com/
www.soas.ac.uk/summermusicschool/
At the moment I am also working on the creation of the European Shakuhachi Society. I am hopping to be able to create a society that embraces all styles of shakuhachi and covering all corners of Europe where there is an interest in this beautiful instrument. Perhaps a rotating leadership of ESS would be useful. With the help of Stephanie Hiller, we now a newsletter for ESS, where we can publish research on shakuhachi or just share our experiences. Hopefully the newsletter can be published in English, French and German.
It certainly is exciting times in Europe for shakuhachi lovers!
See our 'under construction' website: www.shakuhachisociety.eu
where you will also be able to read about the 2nd Pan-European Shakuhachi Summer School and other shakuhachi events in Europe.
Personality disorder? Perhaps!
Even a hose in Kew Gardens, South London had to tested for potential sounds! With the grin that followed, it can't have been that successful!
Photo: Lynne Williams
