Hello,
There has been lots of talk and discussion recently about the return of one
of the greatest living shakuhachi masters, Kurahashi Yoshio sensei to the
SanFrancisco bay area in late August and the possibility of Riley Lee
visiting in August as well (i seriously do NOT think we should have them
both here so close to each other!). AS manyof you participated and
otehrwise heard, Kurahashi sensei's recent visit was hugely succesful! His
intense passion and energy, along with his virtuosic playing and beautiful
spiritual demeaner led to a week of very enjoyable and immense learning
about the Jin Nyodo lineage of shakuhachi.
Meanwhile, we have a weekend intensive in early May and here is the
official announcement and schedule. Last summer at the International
Shakuhachi Festival i got to meet for the first time, Michael Gould, one of
the few American masters of the dokyoku shakuhachi tradition. Besides being
a wonderful musician, Michael is a very nice person and is deeply involved
in teh Zen routes of shakuhachi playing. His parents live in Stockton and
thus he visits the area a couple of times a year. So on this visit i am
organising a concert, workshop and private lessons for him.
Of course this is available for any shakuhachi player of any level
regardless of teacher, school or lineage you have previously or currently
study!
Below is the schedule, his plan and his bio.
Please contact me, and let me know if you are interested in attending the
class and if you want to reserve a slot for a private lesson.
Michael Gould will be here saturday may 1 and sunday may 2, 1999.
On May 1, we will have a 6 hour, shakuhachi intensive workshop, introducing
the dokyoku shakuhachi tradition, philosophy and music. The compositions:
Honshirabe, Tamuke, and Daha will be covered. If time permits we will also
examine Yamagoe and/or Shingetsu. First part will be from 10 am till 1 pm.
Then a break for lunch. THe second part will be from 2:30 - 5 pm.
at 8 pm, Michael will give a concert. He will play solo pieces from the
dokyoku tradition as well as modern duets with koto player, Shoko Hikage
and shakuhachi player, Philip Gelb (that's me).
The cost of the all day workshop is $50.
The concert will be $10
On Sunday, May 2, he will be offering private lessons.
Cost: $50 for an hour.
The exact locations are still TBA. Michael is HIGHLY allergic to cats so
that puts our favorite teaching location (Robin Hartshorne's beautiful
house!) not possible. The concert will either be a house concert at Nik
Warren's beautiful house in Berkeley hills or at Meridian Gallery in
SanFrancisco. Details of this will be annoucned later on.
Below is Michael's basic plan for the workshop:
I think an explanation of how to think about or
how to approach "Watazumi-Style" or "Monk Music" would certainly be good
and by doing Honshirabe and showing other techniques we could illustrate
and give examples of what came out of Zen type thinking directly into
the "music". Of course, this is a great time for everyone's personal
questions. I'm open to any ideas as this is everyone's time, $ and life
energy. We could take saturday and say that starting in the morning we
will start with this approach, working from Honshirabe and Tamuke, take
a lunch break and after that do some more advanced pieces such as Daha.
Then do private lessons on Sunday. I know that the private lessons also
depend more on each person's schedule so we can just deal with that.
Below is his bio.
Michael "Chikuzen" Gould began learning the Shakuhachi, the Zen bamboo flutes
of Japan in 1982 in kyoto, Japan under the guidance of world renown masters
Taniguchi Yoshinobu and Yokoyama Katsuya through 1996 and is one of only a
dozen non-native Japanese to ever obtain the rank of Grand Master (Dai
Shihan). Since returning to the U.S.A., he has been busy teaching, performing
and recording the mysterious sounds of this flute that was the "tool" of Zen
monks in Japan during the middle ages. Having spent his first two years back
teaching Zen Buddhism and Shakuhachi at Wittenberg University in Springfield,
Ohio, Michael is currently Shakuhachi instructor at Oberlin University,
Oberlin, Ohio and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan where
he is now based. Not only giving solo concerts, Michael often performs with
the Koto (Japanese Zither) and does lecture/presentations on the Zen origins
of this "instrument" to help people understand the background culture that
gave birth to such a natural "tool".
Philip Gelb
shakuhachi:performance,lessons
266 40th street Way (basement)
Oakland, CA 94611
510 658 5736
ryokan@wenet.net
http://www.hooked.net/~ryokan/
independent distributor: Cell Tech Super Blue Green Algae
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 12 2000 - 13:23:57 PST