Japanese Summer Festival


Ryoko Itabashi

Saturday 18th August saw the 8th annual Japanese Summer Festival here in Ottawa, organised by the local JETAA group. Somehow I didn't spot this last year, but the 2012 edition included all sorts of entertainment including musical offerings from Ryoko Itabashi on the shamisen, followed by Jordan Lincez duo featuring Jordan Patrick and an excellent Japanese accordion player whom I believe is Piromi (Hiromi Iwase).

The shamisen performance was really interesting, both in terms of the music and the way in which the instrument is played. The technique seemed to be a mix between violin-family instruments and a guitar. Itabashi demonstrated the different styles of music from around Japan. Following on from this, Jordan Lincez provided a contrast with more contemporary Japanese (and Western) songs, especially solos from Piromi.

Also on stage were demonstrations of taiko; kendo, iaido and jodo; as well as Japanese drumming and dance.

Providing a complete contrast, later on we went to see.... roller derby! Great fun!

Comments

New talent at Southminster

As a follow-on from last weekend's excellent Chopin concert, there is an afternoon of New Artists from the NAC's Summer Music Institute at Southminster United Church on 17th June. Entitled 'Dover Beach and other works for summertime', the concert features new artists Katarzyna Sadej, Emily Nenninger, Drew Santini, Hannah Min, Paul Casey, Karen Kang and Bryan Wagorn. I had the chance to hear Bryan Wagorn at one of University of Ottawa's Concerts at the NAC 4th Stage concerts back in February and thoroughly enjoyed his performance. The proposed programme is very enticing:

MENDELSSOHN   String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13
MONIUSZKO          Sen (The Dream)
                                   Prząśniczka (Spinner Girl)
SZYMANOWSKI    Lecioły Zórazie (The Swans Were Flying)
                                   Ściani Dumbek (The Dark Forest)
CHOPIN                 Piosnka Litewska (Lithuanian Folksong)
                                   Moja Pieszczotka (My Sweethe…

austraLYSIS and VRi - new music at Leeds

The first few concerts in the new season of events at University of Leeds School of Music have been incredibly varied.
The first concert I saw was from folk band VRi. The string trio performed a mixture of traditional Welsh songs and original compositions. Describing themselves as 'chamber folk', their songs varied from simple voice and accompaniment to foot-tapping energetic numbers (sadly no room for dancing in the Clothworkers' Concert Hall...) exploring Welsh folk but with an art music angle, as well as other folk traditions, with a lot of the music on their new album referencing the Welsh chapel tradition. Absolutely worth a further listen and their music is available on Bandcamp.
Fast forward a week to something altogether different. austraLYSIS: Torbjörn Hultmark & Roger Dean with soprano trombone, piano and live electronics. Riveting to watch their live electronics! I really enjoyed the piece about Metamorphosis for Time and Space - dots, lines, ?, volume - sound…

Soundscapes at the Barbican: Greg Haines and Ólafur Arnalds

Quite a long-time fan of Ólafur Arnalds, I was pretty excited to get tickets for his 11th March concert at the Barbican Centre with the Britten Sinfonia. Definitely worth the convoluted travel plan (driving to Oxford to get the train - First Great Western seem to think people at the Vale of Evesham/Malvern end of the line don't go out at night...)!
Something of a culture clash early on once the sold out crowd had sat down. Greg Haines, last night's support act, came onstage pretty prompt and after a quick hello to the audience, sat down and proceeded to play for 30 minutes straight. He received fabulous applause, but there was a small amount of coughing and fidgeting going on... A great atmosphere with the auditorium completely dark except for Greg's spotlights (cue reminiscences of Frank Horvat and Timber Timbre) - for most of the 30 minutes I was lost in his soundscape. He started with very ambient-minimalist piano sounds and gradually worked up the layers. I so enjoyed b…

PrettyInScarlett

Search This Blog