Christopher Yohmei Concerts/Lecture Schedule
1999-2002

Foreign Correspondent's Club Culture Series Presents

Politics of the Sublime:

Learning a Traditional Japanese Instrument

Lecture/Performance by Christopher Yohmei Blasdel

  • 6:30 PM Wednesday, September 4, 2002
  • Foreign Correspondent's Club Japan (20th Fl. Yurakucho Denki Bldg, North Tower) 03-3211-3161
  • Admission \1500 (price includes full course buffet dinner).
  • Reservations required. Please inquire directly to Foreign Correspondent's Club.

The first of FCCJ's Japan culture series in September will feature Christopher Yohmei Blasdel, award-winning author and shakuhachi performer. Blasdel's subject is Japanese music. A resident of Japan for more than 30 years, the native Texan is one of the few foreigners to have worked his way up through the traditional music (hogaku) world. As a shakuhachi (vertical bamboo flute) master, he has been accepted both as a professional hogaku performer and hogaku teacher. Although Blasdel is deeply involved and enamored of his adopted musical culture, his experiences in dealing with the formalities of the traditional music world have not always been as sublime as the music. In fact, he feels that many of the attitudes the Japanese hold toward their own music and traditional culture are indicative of deeper insecurities relating to their role in the international community. Author of the award-winning nonfiction work Shakuhachi Odyssey, Blasdel will offer insights into shakuhachi music interspersing his talk with a short performance.

　

Saturday, Sunday: June 29-30, 2002

Sound Body

Shakuhachi & Dance

Christopher Yohmei (Shakuhachi) & Hideo Arai (Dance)

Christopher Yohmei will team up with dancer Hideo Arai to present a program of dances accompanied by shakuhachi at the SUTRA Ampitheater near downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This concert is part of SUTRA's "Under the Stars" series, which features accomplished dancers and musicians from around the world in the lush, natural setting of the outdoor ampitheater at SUTRA.

Time: June 29-30, 8:30 PM

Place: SUTRA 12 Persiara Titiwangsa 3, Kuala Lumpur 53200,
Phone 4021-1029 sutra@hotmail.com

Admission: 30 Ringet

Program:

  • SPIRAL Music by Christopher Yohmei, Daiske Akagi/Dance and choreography by Hideo Arai

  • BYOH Music by Ryohei Hirose/Shakuhachi by Christopher Yohmei/Dance and choreography by Hideo Arai

  • KOTOHOGI Music by Christopher Yohmei/Dance and choreography by Hideo Arai

　

　

Thursday, June 13, 2002

Shakuhachi & Sax

Blowing East and West

Christopher Yohmei (Shakuhachi) & Damon Lee (Tenor Sax)

New York based composer/saxophinist Damon Lee, presently in Japan on a Japan Foundation Artists' Grant, will team up with Christopher Yohmei to present a wide variety of pieces, from contemporary Hogaku to jazz favorites and originals.

Time: Thursday, June 13, 7:00 PM

Place: WA-ON (03-5850-8033) Three minute walk from South Exit, JR Yamanote Line, Nippori Station.

Map→　http://www.hogaku.com/waon/index.html)

Admission: 2800 yen (includes one drink)

Program:

HIROSE Ryohei, "Byo" for shakuhachi solo/Charlie PARKER: "Billie's Bounce"/TAKAHASHI Yuji: "Shigure," "Kagerou," "Katsuragi" for shakuhachi solo/Duke ELLINGTON: "In a Sentimental Mood"/ Damon LEE: "Breath" for shakuhachi and saxophone (world premier)/ Damon LEE + Christopher YOHMEI: "Rokudan Deconstructed" for shakuhachi and saxophone (world premier).. and more!

For reservations please contact WA-ON or Christopher Yohmei.

　

Friday, May 17, 2002

Sam Hamill & Christopher Yohmei

HEART of BAMBOO

Poetry Reading with Musical Accompaniment

Featuring Christopher Yohmei on the shakuhachi

Friday, May 17th, 7:00 PM, IHJ Lecture Hall

Hamill's poem are ones of humility and thankfulness. Raised in the West and influenced by the great Chinese and Japanese masters, his poems draw from both traditions, returning us "to that world beyond words, which are only a reflection of desire." Hamill will read his poetry in accompaniment to Christopher Yohmei Blasdel's shakuhachi. Hamill, who came to Japan as a recipient of the US-Japan Creative Arts Fellowship in 1988, has written more than thirty volumes of poetry, three collections of essays, and translations in several languages, including many ancient Japanese and Chinese masters, from whence comes much of his inspiration and aesthetic sense. His Destination Zero: Poems, 1970-1995 (Pine Press, 1995) received a Pushcart Prize and his poetry collection, Gratitude (BOA Editions Ltd., 1998), was a finalist for the 1999 Independent Publisher Book Award in Poetry. In 2000, BOA published Hamill's Crossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese. He is a contributing editor for The American Poetry Review, directs the Port Townsend Writers' Conference, and is editor at Copper Canyon Press at Port Townsend. Hamill and Blasdel will perform selections of poetry from their 1999 CD collaboration, Heart of Bamboo. This program is co-sponsored by the Tokyo American Center.

Admission is Free (Reservations requested). For Further Information or reservations please call, fax or E-mail the IHJ Program Department. Tel: 03-3470-3211 (9AM-5PM, Mon-Fri.) Fax: 03-3470-3170.

　

　

Contemporary and Classical Japanese Music

Piano, Voice and Shakuhachi from an International Perspective

Piano: Yumiko Oshima Ryan from Japan residing in the US
Voice: Mika Kimula from Japan residing in Japan
Shakuhachi: Christopher Yohmei from the US residing in Japan

　

A Banquet of Flutists

Flute masters from Japan, Korea, China and the Phillipines

join together for an afternoon of performance

Christopher Yohmei: Shakuhachi, Tosha Meisho: Yokobue,

Ou Meikun: Chinese Flute, Hon Jon Jin:Korean Taegum,

Gladys Bungayong-Balan: Filipino Tongali flutes

　

　

　

Voice & Shakuhachi, Part II: Traditional,Contemporary, Original and Improvised

Featuring Mika Kimula on Voice
With Special Guest Sasha Bogdanowitsch
  • When: 7:00 PM July 19, 2001
  • Place: Waon Live House (03-5850-8033), 5 Fl. Ekimae Bldg. JR Yamate Line Nippori Station
  • Time: Three sets at 7 PM
  • Admission: \3000 (Includes one drink)
  • For more information or reservations call Waon or e-mail Christopher Yohmei.



    •  
  • Crosswinds: Peter Chin (Award winning multi-media artist from Canada) teams with Christopher Yohmei in Sutra Dance Festival, Kuala Lumpur


    • Peter Chin and Christopher Yohmei create, within a rigorous temporal, spatial and sonic framework, responding directly and intuitively with each other and the environement that unites them, exploring the freedom and tension of the fixed and the free; that of the body and sound. An electrifying combination of two creative artists. This performance is part of the Gerak Angin Sutra Festival 2001, which runs from June 27th to July 31st, 2001 at the Sutra Theater.
     
     


     
  • Christopher Yohmei Shakuhachi Workshop

    •  


    Kinko style shakuhachi master Christopher Yohmei Blasdel will visit Seattle and give an afternoon shakuhachi workshop, open to all levels of players.

    Christopher, one of the organizers of the World Shakuhachi Festival '98 in Boulder, Colorado, has resided in Japan since 1972, studying with the late Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi until his death in 1999.

    This workshop will emphasize the basic shakuhachi techniques, applicable to all styles of shakuhachi music. Also taught will be the secrets of the gentle yet powerful playing style that characterized Yamaguchi's performances.

    Advanced players are welcome to bring their own pieces: Yokoyama style honkyoku, folk songs, etc., but some of the teaching material will focus on the gaikyoku ensemble songs for shakuhachi, shamisen and koto ("Rokudan," "Chidori no Kyoku," etc.) and the elegant and technically demanding Kinko honkyoku solo works ("Hifumi Hachigaeshi," etc). Material for beginners will include exercises and the simple folk/children's songs taken from Blasdel's book, THE SHAKUHACHI, A MANUAL FOR LEARNING (available from Monty Levenson's web site, http://www.shakuhachi.com).

    The workshop will also review and work on the following basics skills:


    Christopher Yohmei has a long and distinguished career as teacher, performer and researcher of Japanese music. He received his MFA from Tokyo University of Music and the Fine Arts in 1982 and presently performs and teaches frequently in Japan and around the world.

    For more information and reservations for the workshop, please contact Mr. Akio Ueno. Participants for the workshop are limited to 10 persons.


     
  • AN EVENING OF MUSIC FOR THE SHAKUHACHI, PIANO AND TSUGARU SHAMISEN


    • Sony Corporation's elegant live house on the beach in Daiba has become a well known forum for quality world music, both traditional and popular. They regularly feature outstanding artists and world music groups from around the globe.

    On May 23, pianist Takashi Obara and I will have our second appearance at TLG, joined by the inimitable Tsugaru Shamisen master Yujiro Takahashi.
    As instruments, the shakuhachi and piano are completely opposite. The piano, a product of Europe's Industrial Age, is a large-scale, precision mechanical instrument, capable of expressing a wealth of harmonies and rhythmical patterns. The piano has become the standard of music around the world.
    The shakuhachi is a simple piece of bamboo, 54 cms in length, with five finger holes. Its shape and function of has remained basically unchanged since its importation into Japan over 1300 years ago. Takashi Obara is a suave Tokyoite with his own NHK FM morning radio show consisting of well-known classics and his own arrangements of popular songs. Added to this will be the simple profundity of the shakuhachi along with the powerful folk melodies and expressive rhythms of the Tsugaru shamisen. A variety of pieces will be performed, from the classics to popular to the improvisatory.
     

    Discounts available: If you order a ticket through E-mail, I can give a 10% discount on all the above prices. Please E-mail Christopher Yohmei.


     
  • April 8, 2001　Silk and Bamboo in Hawaii
    •                        Shamisen/Koto/Shakuhachi Performance at the East West Center


    NHK FM Radio Appearance
    NHK FM Radio Appearance
    Jiuta Soukyoku
    "Hagi no Tsuyu"
    Yonekawa Hiroe (shamisen)
    Okazaki Toshiyu (koto)
    Christopher Yohmei (shakuhachi)





    Featuring Ramli Ibrahim (dance, choreography)
    Hiroe Yonekawa (koto)
    Hirokazu Fujii (sangen)
    Mika Kimula (voice)
    Featuring
    Fujo Kato (brush painting)
    Micheal Pestle (sound artist)
    Britta Schoenbrum (dance)
    Christopher Yohmei (shakuhachi)
    Mika Kimula (voice)

     
     
     
    Featuring Mika Kimula on Voice
    Featuring Mika Kimula on Voice
    Featuring Mika Kimula on Voice