CRS is pleased to present the first of three concerts of AMI, a new series of chamber concerts by the international ensemble INTERWOVEN in the award-winning White Room at CRS. The first concert will take place on Saturday, September 24 at 7:30 pm and will feature Yoko Reikano Kimura (koto/shamisen) with Keiko Tokunaga (violin) and Hikaru Tamaki (cello) performing compositions by Japanese and western composers:
Founded by Grammy-winner Keiko Tokunaga, INTERWOVEN is a chamber ensemble whose mission is to bring together the sounds from different places and time. The ensemble name derives from the idea that music making is like creating a tapestry, woven together with threads that represent and celebrate diverse origins, traditions and materials.
Ami means “to knit” in Japanese and “friend” in many Romance languages. By bringing together musicians from different cultural backgrounds to play western and non-western music, traditional and contemporary, side by side, we likewise hope to introduce patrons of different backgrounds to the wonders and commonalities to be found in unfamiliar traditions, to inspire new friendships, and to strengthen our cross-cultural connections.
Tickets are $30 and are available online through eventbrite.com and at the door for cash only, if not sold out. Seating is limited and includes floor seating on blankets. All patrons must show proof of vaccination at the door in order to be admitted, no exceptions. In addition, masks must be worn throughout.
Deep listening forms the foundation of the practice and programming of CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing). Free from distractions such as food and drink service, we share these opportunities to listen deeply with you, that we may let go of what we know or think, and simply experience.
The second concert in the series will take place on October 8 and will feature the Korean wind player gamin with two violins and viola performing the music of Ki Young Kim, Theodore Wiprud, William Cooper, and gamin. The third concert will occur on October 29 and will feature Andy Lin (erhu/viola), performing Chen Yi’s Fiddle Suite for String Quartet and other compositions.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Daron Hagen‘s “Catavina” is the second movement of “Cantabile,” a portrait of the historical figure, Taira no Tokuko’s years as a recluse and Buddhist nun. “Cantabile” is one of a long song cycle, “Heike Quinto” which was composed by Daron Hagen and commissioned by Duo YUMENO in 2015 – 2022. The recording of Heike Quinto will be released from Naxos in 2022-23.
Elizabeth Brown‘s “The Secret Life of Birds” (1992) was commissioned by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs for Shirley Yamamoto, flute, and Yoko Awaya, koto, and is inspired by Brown’s love of the different ways birds use their voices: the ‘song’, the ‘call’, the ‘note.’ The koto part uses a traditional tuning, though offset by a half step for the upper half of the strings.
Ken Ueno‘s “Tsuki no Uta” was composed for koto and voice and premiered in 2010.
Michael Ippolito‘s “Strange Loops” (2018), for violin and cello, takes its title from the concept developed by Douglas Hofstadter in his books Gödel, Escher, Bach and I Am a Strange Loop. Strange loops arise when one moves through a system in one direction, yet somehow ends up back at the beginning.
Seihō Kineya‘s “Tsuki no En” (1959) is a contemporary Hôgaku, which is a composition written in the post-war era after the style and/or instrumentation of Japanese traditional music but influenced by western music, composed for the Noh play Mii-dera Temple.
Thomas Osborne‘s Tumbling From the Ninth Height of Heaven (2007) takes its title from a poem by Li Bai (c. 700-762), a Chinese poet from the Tang dynasty. The poem, “Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu,” describes an enormous waterfall at Mount Lu in Jiangsi province. Osborne’s composition also draws inspiration from Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai woodcut depicting Li Bai at the edge of a cliff gazing upon the immense falls while his two young attendants try to keep the inebriated poet from tumbling over the edge.
TICKET LINK:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/interwoven-ami-1-tickets-403776054047
COVID POLICY:
Proof of full vaccination is required to enter, no exceptions. Masks must be worn throughout. Seating is limited and includes seating on the floor. Please do not come if you are symptomatic. Ask for a refund instead or donate your ticket.
VENUE LOCATION:
The White Room at CRS
123 4th Ave FL3
New York, NY 10003
212-677-862
DIRECTIONS:
CRS is located on the 3rd floor of a walk-up building above Think Coffee, between 12th & 13th streets, one block east of The Strand Bookstore. There is no elevator or wheelchair access.
NEAREST SUBWAY STATIONS:
4/5/6, N/R/Q, L trains to 14th St / Union Square
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
HIKARU TAMAKI concertizes regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in the US and Japan. He served as the principal cellist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and was a member of the Freimann String Quartet from 2001 until 2013. Solo performances with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic have included numerous major concertos in the cello repertoire. Tamaki was a prizewinner in the prestigious All Japan Viva Hall Cello Competition in 2000.
Tamaki is the founder of Duo YUMENO and regularly collaborates with koto/shamisen player, Yoko Reikano Kimura. The duo was awarded the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program grant in 2014, and received the Aoyama Baroque Saal Award in the following year.
From 2016, he has served as the principal cellist of the Berkshire Opera Festival and is also a member of the Albany Symphony Orchestra and the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Town Hall and Fisher Performing Arts Center.
Born in Kyoto, Tamaki’s studies in Japan were with Noboru Kamimura and Peter Seidenberg. Studies in the United States began at the Eastman School of Music, where he was named a George Eastman Scholar, and continued at Rice University and Northwestern University for his graduate degree. His teachers were Paul Katz and Hans Jorgen Jensen.
hikarucello.com | duoyumeno.com
Winner of the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance, violinist KEIKO TOKUNAGA spends most of her days touring and performing globally as a soloist and chamber musician. Keiko has performed, toured and recorded extensively with the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet from 2005 to 2019, and has been praised by the Strings Magazine for possessing a sound “with probing quality that is supple and airborne” and for her “pure, pellucid bow strokes”. She has soloed with various orchestras including the Spanish National Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya and Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra.
In 2021, Keiko founded an online concert series, Jukebox Concerts, in order to provide artistic outlets for musicians who lost their engagements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The performances were made available not only to the subscribers, but also to residents of nursing homes, hospitals and assisted living facilities across the country. Later in the year, she created INTERWOVEN, a multi-cultural ensemble whose mission is to eliminate discrimination against the AAAPI (Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community by integrating the musical traditions of the East and West.
While Keiko played the Attacca Quartet, the ensemble won numerous prestigious awards including the GRAMMY Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance, First Prize of the 7th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2011; the Third Prize and the Australian Broadcast Corporation Classic FM Listener’s Choice Award of the 6th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2011. The Attacca Quartet served as the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at The Juilliard School from 2011 till 2013, and as artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the 2014-15 season.
When she is not on the road, Keiko enjoys her career as an educator. She is currently on faculty at Fordham University. In the past, she taught at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division; the Hunter College of New York; New York University; the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival; and Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute.
interwovenmusic.org
YOKO REIKANO KIMURA is a distinguished virtuoso of Japanese koto, shamisen performer and singer in both traditional and contemporary music. Kimura has concertized in about 20 countries around the world based in New York and Japan. Following her studies at the Tokyo University of the Arts, she studied at Institute of Traditional Japanese Music, an affiliate of Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan. Kimura was awarded a scholarship from the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan. Her teachers include Kono Kameyama, Akiko Nishigata and Senko Yamabiko, a Living National Treasure. Awards include the First prize at the prestigious 10th Kenjun Memorial National Koto Competition and the First prize at the 4th Great Wall International Music Competition. Kimura performed at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, accompanying Danjuro Ichikawa XII. Her performances have been broadcasted on NHK-FM’s Hogaku no Hitotoki, NPR’s Performance Today and WKCR. As a koto soloist, Kimura has performed Daron Hagen’s Koto Concerto: Genji with the Wintergreen Music Festival Orchestra conducted by Mei-Ann Chen and several string quartets. As a shamisen soloist, she performed Kin’ichi Nakanoshima’s Shamisen Concerto at the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center.
Her performances have been featured at many opera and theater works, such as Michi Wiancko’s Murasaki’s Moon at Metropolitan Museum, Piestro Mascagni’s Iris by American Symphony Orchestra, Basil Twist’s Dogugaeshi, Yasuko Yokoshi’s Bell and many others.
Kimura is a founder of Duo YUMENO, with cellist Hikaru Tamaki. The duo received the Kyoto Aoyama Barock Saal Award in 2015, and featured at Chamber Music America’s 2016 National Conference, and performed at the John F. Kennedy Center in 2017. In 2019, the duo had its ten-year anniversary recital at Carnegie Hall.
yokoreikanokimura.com | duoyumeno.com
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
CRS (CENTER FOR REMEMBERING & SHARING) is a spiritual healing and art center founded in 2004 by the writer/lecturer/spiritual counselor Yasuko Kasaki and artist Christopher Pelham. Our mission is guided by A Course in Miracles (ACIM). ACIM says that recognizing that you and your brother are actually one is the only way to experience peace. The mission of CRS is to promote the awareness that limitless creativity lives within each of us. We train minds to recognize the light in themselves and others and provide them opportunities to share their inner vision through the healing and creative arts. Since its founding CRS has provided numerous residencies and performance and exhibition opportunities to artists from all over the world. Currently, CRS is a multi-year sponsor of M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians), a platform created to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to women, non-binary musicians and those of other historically underrepresented gender identities in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions.
crsny.org