Reigakushu Gagaku Ensemble will perform music of Sukeyasu Shiba at Merkin Concert Hall
FESTIVAL 2010
Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Center, Goodman House
129 West 67th St.
February 20-21, $20/night, $35/both nights
212-501-3330
www.musicfromjapan.org
Music from Japan celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary of bringing traditional and new Japanese music to the rest of the world with two special programs at Merkin Concert Hall. On February 20 at 7:00, composer, teacher, researcher, and performer Sukeyasu Shiba will give a lecture on reconstructing lost gagaku music, the elegant, classical court music of ancient Japan, followed at 8:00 by “Sukeyasu Shiba’s Gagaku Universe,” featuring a new gagaku commission called “Mai FuJin 35,” dance pieces choreographed by Stephen Pier, and live music from the Reigakushu Gagaku Ensemble, with three American premieres and one world premiere. “Highlights of MFH Commissions II” on February 21 will include compositions by Hikaru Hayashi (“Lament”), Shin-ichiro Ikebe (“Bi-valance”), Sunao Isaji (“a lovleg day for mirrages on the sea”), and world premieres by Hitomi Kaneko (“Almost Dusk”) and Yasuko Yamaguchi (“Wurzeln”).