MUSIC: WORLD SHAKUHACHI FESTIVAL 2008
PREVIEW BY BRAD GILL
Australia’s thriving percussion scene comprises a growing number of exciting young musicians along with established ensembles with a strong history of innovative collaboration and interest in music of different cultures. In particular there is a long history of serious study of traditional music of various Asian cultures, particularly of Japan, ranging from percussionist Ian Cleworth’s study of Taiko drumming and subsequent formation of the Taiko drumming group TaikOz to the continued inspiring explorations of internationally renowned shakuhachi Grand Master Riley Lee.
Sydney will experience all of this and more in two exciting concerts that will be opening the World Shakuhachi Festival of 2008, the brain child of Riley Lee. The festival will bring together shakuhachi players from around the world for workshops and performances, opened July 4 by the Breath to Breath concert, featuring TaikOz in their only Sydney performance this year. They will be joined by Riley Lee along with four special guest soloists from Japan, Synergy member Timothy Constable, TaikOz member Anton Lock performing a dramatic solo dance choreographed by Meryl Tankard.
In contrast to what should be an explosive festival opener, the event of the following evening is to be a smaller, more meditative affair. The work, In the Between: Meditations and Illuminations of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, will feature the group Trikaya – Riley Lee again, along with actor, orator and musician James Coates, composer and well known percussionist Michael Askill and the now Brisbane based Tibetan musician Tennzin Choegyal, who will both sing and play Tibetan instruments.
This promises to be an extremely special event for a number of reasons. To begin with, the spiritual atmosphere of the work will be enhanced by performance times of 10PM and Midnight; aside from being perhaps unusually late for a concert, hours considered to be highly auspicious. Also, each performer has a history of engagement through music with spiritual matters, ranging from the Zen influenced shakuhachi tradition James Coates’ interest in the Sufi poets Hafiz and Rumi. And then there is the text upon which the performance is based, meant to benefit someone during the stages of ‘dissolution’ accompanying the death process ‘in between’ re-births. Reports of previous performances of the work are radiant, with reviewers describing themselves as ‘soul shaken’ by the experience, and emphasizing the profound communication achieved by the meditative musical/theatric interpretation and the dedicated performers involved.
Breath to Breath
July 4, 8PM
The City Recital Hall
$65/$55
In the Between: Meditations and Illuminations of The Tibetan Book of the Dead
July 5, 10PM and midnight
Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
$50/$60
Bookings: 8256 2222 and www.cityrecitalhall.com
