Recorded in concert on May 31, 2013 in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Shakuhachi Concerto
by Paul Moravec
Orchestra of the Swan - UK Premiere
David Curtis, Conductor
James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi
Shakuhachi Concerto (2012) was commissioned by Kyo-Shin-An Arts, with support from Meet the Composer, and composed for James Nyoraku Schlefer. It is a concerto in three movements for shakuhachi and string orchestra. The third movement is based on the six-note melody, C-D-G-A-E-F, which William Shakespeare spells out in his comedy, Love’s Labour’s Lost. Indeed, it is the only extant melody "composed" by the playwright. In a sense, Shakuhachi Concerto is a kind of shaku-Shakespeare mash-up.
Video courtesy of Fidelity Local 6, in Rolla, Missouri.
Recorded in concert on November 4, 2015
Dream Corner
by James Nyoraku Schlefer
Arianna String Quartet
Yoko Reikano Kimura, shamisen and voice
Yumi Kurasawa, koto
James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi
From the composer: Dream Corner is the first result of my longtime desire to write a work that would unite my two favorite chamber music ensembles: the European String Quartet and the Japanese Sankyoku. Each ensemble has its own vast repertoire, spanning several centuries, offering audiences a composer’s most personal and inventive work in an intimate listening experience. Yet the timbral, textural, structural, melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements between these two traditions are hugely different. Dream Corner recognizes these two, distinct musical worlds, but the fusion is uniquely mine. The story is of two people who live far apart, never knowing one another in the “awake” world. They meet as lovers only when they sleep and dream at the same time.
Between
by Salina Fisher
Yoko Reikano Kimura, koto
James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhach
David Yang, viola
Hikaru Tamaki, cello; .
From the composer: Between is a reflection on a number of ‘spaces’ in my recent experience; between cultures, between geographic locations, between chapters in my life. As a person of mixed descent, I often feel my cultural identity (Japanese and New Zealander) fluctuating in response to my surroundings and interactions. In writing for this mixed ensemble of traditional Japanese and Western instruments, I became particularly interested in exploring ways in which these seemingly disparate instruments could naturally relate to one another, interact, provide space, and find unity.
Recorded in concert at the Tenri Cultural Institute in NYC on February 9, 2020
Torio
by Douglas J. Cuomo
Taka Kigawa, piano
Yoko Reikano Kimura, shamisen
James Nyoraku Schlefer, shakuhachi
From the conposer: Torio is the word for trio or trio sonata in Japanese, but it also has two less common meanings - a female street musician who plays shamisen, and also “to hold a ceremony”, in particular a traditional ceremony held at the new year that involves children singing songs to chase away birds as they walk in procession from house to house. This piece makes reference to all three definitions: it is a processional piece for an imagined bird-chasing ceremony, includes a shamisen, and is a modern take on a Baroque trio sonata. While a traditional Baroque trio sonata has basso continuo (or bass line) running throughout the piece, Torio has virtually no low parts at all. Instead an upper register “continuo” is created by is the piano playing repetitive patterns in the extreme upper register, with the sustain pedal engaged. This creates a mist of harmonics and overtones that envelopes the piece as well as, I hope, gently yet firmly chasing away whatever birds might be around.
Recorded in concert at the Tenri Cultural Institute in NYC on May 20, 2018. A Kyo-Shin-An Arts Commission.