Traditional Japanese Instruments in New Music

PHILADELPHIA MUSIC PROJECT NEW FRONTIERS IN MUSIC

Tuesday, October 31, 2006Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage1608 Walnut Street, 18th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103

RSVP Deadline: Monday, October 23To RSVP for this event, please complete the accompanying form and return it by fax to 267 350 4998 or call PMPat 267 350 4960

PMP will host a symposium featuring Philadelphia composer/bass clarinetist Gene Coleman and visiting artists Ko Ishikawa and Ryuko Mizutani, musicians who have explored the use of traditional Japanese instruments in contemporary music, including in combination with live electronics and video. Following demonstrations of the sho (a bamboo mouth organ) and the koto (a stringed instrument resembling a zither), and brief lectures regarding the instruments’ histories, panelists will discuss the possibilities, challenges, and implications of cross-cultural collaborations. This event will provide an opportunity for participants to examine the signifi cance of contemporary music in an increasingly globalized society, as opportunities to work internationally continue to gain signifi cance, both artistically and culturally.

This event is produced by the Philadelphia Music Project, an Artistic Initiative funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, administered by The University of the Arts. Free Parking is available.

2:30 – 3 pm Registration and Snacks

3 – 5 pm Roundtable

featuringKo Ishikawa, sho Ryuko Mizutani, koto

moderated byGene Coleman, bass clarinet/composer

Ko IshikawaKo Ishikawa is a professional sho player and member of the Gagaku ensemble Reigakusha. He was born in Tokyo in 1963 and studied sho and Gagaku music with masters Mayumi Miyata, Hideaki Bunno and Sukeyasu Shiba. Ishikawa became a member of Reigakusha in 1987, and has made numerous appearances with them and as a soloist at various major European music festivals. His performances of both traditional and new music have been highly regarded in Vienna, London, Paris, Tokyo, Frankfurt and Berlin. Ishikawa has worked frequently with Otomo Yoshihide in the group Cathode and he has played and recorded extensively with composer Gene Coleman in Japan, Europe and the United States.

Ryuko MizutaniRyuko Mizutani is a native of Japan and a professional koto player, having graduated from the NHK National Broadcasting School for Performers of Japanese Music in 1987. She has studied both classical and modern koto music under the world-renowned koto masters Tadao and Kazue Sawai, with whom she has toured in Germany, India, and Poland. Mizutani has performed in festivals like “Bang on a Can” in New York and the Moers Jazz Festival in Germany. In 1999, she received a fellowship from the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program for Artists to study with jazz great Anthony Braxton and experimental composer Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University in Connecuticut, and has since continued to collaborate with musicians of diverse musical backgrounds.

Gene ColemanGene Coleman is a composer, musician and the artistic director of Soundfi eld, NFP. He has extensive experience working internationally, and will be composer in residence at the Taipei Artists Village in November and December 2006. In July 2005, he was a recipient of grants from Meet the Composer and the U.S. State Department for a residency in Beirut, Lebanon. In 2001, he received a fellowship from the NEA/Japan-US Friendship Commission. He has also been guest composer at the Takefu International Music Festival, and composer in residence at Spritzen Haus in Hamburg, the University of Lubeck, and The House of World Cultures in Berlin, where he was also artistic director of Transonic, a festival focused on globalization and new music. Coleman has received commissions from many groups and organizations, including Trio Accanto, Klangforum Wien, The International House of Japan, and the Ernst Von Siemens Foundation. His current work focuses on globalization and music’s relationship with other media, such as architecture and video. With musicians from the Tokyo experimental music scene and traditional Japanese musicians he created the group “Ensemble N_JP” in 2002, with whom he has toured in Europe, Japan and North America.