World Shakuhachi Festival 2008
On Wednesday evening at the AG-NSW, we were offered tempting morsels of what to expect over the life of this festival which is in Sydney for the first time mostly thanks to the indefatigible Riley Lee. I have attended many of the Wedenesday night offerings at the gallery - they ARE free! - but this is the first one where the patrons overflowed the Central Court.
However, this was nothing in comparison with the rapturous applause that exploded out of the City Recital Hall at Angel Place on Friday evening for the opening concert odf the festival, "Breath to Breath" which featured Taikoz. Words cannot do this experience justice. Meryl Tankard's "Kaidan" for the 2007 Sydney Festival was my first encounter with Taikoz and it left me speechless - not easy! Earlier this year, I was electrified by their performance at the Four Winds festival in Bermagui. This latest concert was yet another permutation of their artistry with many pieces that I have not experienced previously and with a broader range than I realised. They have a special relationship with Riley Lee and this was evidenced at the end of the programme when he forsook his shakuhachi and pounded out one of the grandfather drums. I treasured David Wheeler on the shakuhachi; his fluency in Japanese and delicacy on the instrument belying his prize-fighter appearance.
My third foray into this mind-boggling festival, was at The Conservatorium on Saturday evening for the 10pm presentation of "... in Between", meditations and illuminations on The Tibetan Book of the Dead where Riley Lee's shakuhachi took a secondary role to that of gongs (Michael Askill), voice and wind (Tensin Choegyul) and the drop-dead sonority of James Coates. I was captivated for 90 minutes as I was led through this text that accompanies the recently deceased into the next life. My only sadness was that I had to attend alone as everyone I asked regarded it as a "bridge too far".
I tried to find something genuinely Japanese for you to experience the Shakuhachi as played by Riley Lee but decided upon this lilting Western tune as it shows both Lee and the shak without the dripping syrup of a powerpoint display.
I enjoyed this festival very much - a bridge-too-far suits me.
FYI: David Wheeler is not one speck Japanese. He is a good ol' American boy from Seattle. He's just spent a lot of his life in Japan.
And he does sorta look like a small prize fighter, doesn't he.
He'd certainly cherish any directed comments from you--if you can't find his contact info, write me, and I'll supply it--same goes for Riley (although his contact info is on his website: RileyLee.net).
Nice bloggage!
eB
Posted by: eB (in Salt Lake) | 20 July 2008 at 12:35 PM
Julie, what a wondrous weekend of music you experienced. My first foray to the Woodford festival was, I'm ashamed to say, just this year, & Riley Lee was one of the highlights for me. That YouTube video was fabulous...such gorgeous music.
By the way,your solution to the silence of my keyboard gave me a good giggle, simply because of its aptness! Sadly there are no 16 yo techno-heads within cooee of me, so I have had to pay a keyboard doctor to cure the silence.
Posted by: Cabacurl | 15 July 2008 at 04:27 PM
Marilyn: I would go to this page on the 2008 Festival site http://www.worldshakuhachifestival08.com/contacts.html
and email either Riley Lee or David Wheeler. David is an American-Japanese. He might be a bit busy for the next few days but I feel sure he will respond to your query.
Posted by: Julie | 07 July 2008 at 06:05 AM
I would like to correspond with a professional Shakuhachi player by the name of Takafumi Kudo who performs in Sapporo. Can you help me?
Posted by: marilyn m. scanlan | 07 July 2008 at 05:27 AM