The European Shakuhachi Society

Year: 2023

  • ESS New Year Concert 2024!

    A big thanks to our audience and performers of the New Year Concert — thank you for sharing that moment together!

    The ESS New Year Concert took place on Sunday 21 January 2024 and had the theme “Shakuhachi Animals”. Some comments from participants:

    Thank You very much
    Thank you everyone who played and thank you to the organisers!
    Thank you. Furuya Sensei thank you!
    Thanks to all the performers and organizers! Great show!
    Thank you, great concert!
    This concert was so amazing, breathtaking and wonderful. Touching me deeply. Thank you to everybody! Am looking forward to the next concerts!

    You can find out more about the concert and read reactions from audience members on the ESS New Year’s Concert page.

  • Online Events Season 2023/24

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    We have announced an exciting series of online events and workshops for 2023-2024, including:

    2023
    • 15 October – Introductory workshop for beginners (Riley Lee, Daniel Ryudo)
    • 11-12 November – Beginner/Elementary workshops (Riley Lee, Daniel Ryudo, Véronique Piron, Elizabeth Reian Bennett)

    2024
    • 21 January – ESS New Year Concert (free – book here)
    • 11 February – StartingUp/Beginner workshops (Christopher Yohmei Blasdel and Kiku Day)
    • 2-3 March – Intermediate/Advanced workshops (Akihito Obama, James Nyoraku Schlefer, Elizabeth Brown, Gunnar Jinmei Linder)
    • A series of five events in April/May 2024 exploring voice and shakuhachi
    – 13 April – Shōmyō Buddhist chant (Junko Ueda)
    – 14 April – Singing honkyoku workshop (Teruo Furuya)
    – 20 April – Voice in sankyoku workshop (Shino Arisawa, Miyama McQueen-Tokita)
    – 27 April – Min’yō workshop (Kinzaburo Abe)
    – 4 May – Vocalising shakuhachi (Anne Norman)
    • 2 June – Shakuhachi & Improvisation (Ned Rothenberg, Detta Danford, Natasha Zielazinski)

    To find out more about the schedules, teachers, and to register for the workshops, visit our dedicated page: https://online2023-24.shakuhachisociety.eu/

  • ESS Summer School In Balbriggan, 20-24 July 2023

    With huge thanks to Phil Horan and his team in Ireland, this year’s ESS Summer School was a huge succESS. We left the beautiful island of Ireland full of inspiration, ideas, new pieces, memories of amazing performances by the teachers and students, and of course bellies full of GuinESS!

  • Sakura Planting Ceremony At The ESS Summer School In Balbriggan 2023

    Ambassador of Japan to Ireland Mr. Maruyama (third from left), next to CEO of the Irish Institute for Music and Dance, Michael Dawson (first from left) and Phil Soumei Horan (on right)
    Playing Sakura in the rain – from left: Philip Soumei Horan, Ambassador of Japan to Ireland Mr. Maruyama, Kiku Day, Thorsten Knaub (ESS Chair), Araki Kodo VI and Riley Lee
    The commemorative plaque and sakura tree

    One of the most memorable events of the ESS Summer School 2023 was the planting of the sakura tree. The Ambassador of Japan to Ireland, Mr. Maruyama, made a special visit to the Irish Institute of Music and Song in Balbriggan to show his support for the Summer School. He attended the Gala Concert with performances by some of the teachers at the Summer School, and we then all went out to the garden of the IIMS grounds and took part in a tree-planting ceremony.

    In the ceremony we all stood in the gentle rain as a few speeches were given, and then we collectively played Sakura Sakura, while the Ambassador took the spade and ceremonically planted a sakura tree in the garden of the IIMS together with a dedicated plaque to commemorate this special event.

    The plaque features a beautiful engraving of a shakuhachi player and has the following inscription:

    “This Sakura tree, symbolising the spirit of the Japanese people which is closely associated with the culture of Japan has been planted by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ireland, Ambassador Maruyama Norio, to mark the occasion of the Irish Institute of Music & Song hosting the European Shakuhachi Summer School 19th to 24th July 2023“

  • Summer School in Dublin, 20–23 July 2023S

    Summer School in Dublin, 20–23 July 2023S

    Almost unbelievably the last time where we all could meet face to face to play and learn shakuhachi together was in 2019 in Lisbon. Although we had a continous virtual gatherings through our Zoom programme, we still missed sharing the same location and all that social mingling these ESS events bring along with them.

    Now thanks to Philip Horan and his team in Ireland, who, after the 2020 Covid induced cancellation and the huge disappointment to be stopped in mid-organisation, still managed to put together a fantastic programme for this year’s summer school at an amazing location:

    Dates: Thursday 20 July to Sunday 23 July 2023
    Venue: Irish Institute of Music and Song, Balbriggan, County Dublin
    Information & registration: dublin2023.shakuhachisociety.eu

  • Online Event ‘Road to Dublin 3′ on 4, 5 March 2023

    Online Event ‘Road to Dublin 3′ on 4, 5 March 2023

    The third and final ‘Road to Dublin’ online will take place on 4th and 5th March. Again a wide range of styles will be represented as well as workshops for different levels of proficiency.

    If you are also planning to attend the ESS Summer School in Dublin this year (20–23 July), there is a special offer for ESS members to book a combined ticket for Road to Dublin 3 and the Dublin Summer School. Please see the registration page for more details.

    Teachers: Seian Genshin, Marco Lienhard, Adrian Freedman and Yoshimi Tsujimoto

    Dates: 4, 5 March 2023

    Fees: ESS members: €40, Non-members: €50

    Web: http://roadtodublin.shakuhachisociety.eu

    Registration: roadtodublin.shakuhachisociety.eu/registration-3

    The Road to Dublin Online Event 3 presents shakuhachi music from the legendary roots right up to the very present. Our weekend starts with Seian Genshin, the 42nd head of the Myōanji Temple/Fuke Myōan Shakuhachi sharing with us Chōshi and Kokū and through this his approach to ‘suizen’ and seeing shakuhachi as a tool of Zen Buddhism. The meditative Fuke Myōan sounds will be contrasted by Marco Lienhard’s interpretation and teaching of the virtuous expressive piece Makiri a modern composition by Marco’s teacher, the late Yokoyama Katsuya. Tsujimoto Yoshimi one of the young new generation of woman shakuhachi masters in Japan, equally at home in the Kinko tradition as well as in the contemporary ‘shakuhachi-pop’ scene, introduces us to her take on Tamuke and arrangements of popular tunes Takeda no Komori Uta and Summer. We will close the workshop by arriving at Adrian Freedman’s 2015 composition Yugure, where the calming rhythm of breath and sound brings us back again to the roots and right into the present – there-by closing the circle of our week-end excursion.