Bruce Jones wrote:
> Hello,
>
> As someone who *really* missed going to Boulder, I wonder if
> there are folks on the list who were able to go who might
> put something on email about their experiences at the Festival.
>
> I know I'd like to hear about them.
>
> Thanks,
Where to begin..... To put it lightly it was an incredible week. Being able
to hear and take master classes with Yokoyama, Yamaguchi, Aoki, Araki and
Yamamoto in one week is certainly a priveledge and an honour! FOr me the
Yokoyama master class was a highlight of the week!! I have never witnessed
a person put so much passion and love into teaching like Yokoyama did that
morning. I have always loved his music and this was my first opportunity
to hear him live and to study with him. He is truly a very beautiful and
spiritually powerful human being. His prescence was very moving!!
There were many incredible performances throughout the week. For me,
getting to hear the masters was a beautiful and humbling experience. I was
also deeply moved by Ryudo Takahashi whose technique and sound were not the
most powerful but who had a spiritual quality to his performances that made
the technical flaws transparent. I was also very moved by Shodo Sakai's
performance!
There were also some very weak performances on some of the afternoon concerts.
One of the most amazing parts of the week was witnessing how many American
shakuhachi players that are plaing at a very advanced level! Many who i had
heard and several who i was not familiar with. It was wonderful to meet
many people who i had been in touch with via the net or whose cds i have
listened to as well as to see friends from Japan, Europe and from all over
North America. There was some beautiful energy flowing around Boulder as
well as some very negative energy. The politics of the shakuhachi world and
the petty jealousies among some of the american players was a bit
overbearing at times. WHen i started studyign shakuhachi which was only
about 10 years ago, i was under the impression that it was a Zen thing.
My 2 main critiques of the festival were that there were simly too many
events simultaneously! In order to attend one concert you had to miss
several others as well as many workshops.
My other critique and i know i share this with several others who were in
attendance was that one american shakuhachi player gave 2 horrible and
incredibly offensive "comedy" performances which were incredibly out of
place.
I will never forget the thursday night concert nor do i think anyone who
was in attendance will. It started with Yokoyama giving a marvelous
performance of "San'an" which brought tears to my eyes and ended with a
brilliant shakuhachi trio with Yokoyama, Yamamoto and Aoki that brought the
crowd to a standing ovation. Aoki was so moved by the performance and the
crowds reaction that he actually wept and said some very moving words to
the audience. The bus ride back to Boulder after that concert was filled
with spectators who were totally awed by what we witnessed. 5 of the
greatest grandmasters of the shakuhachi, all with radically different
styles played that night. Will we ever have that kind of opportunity to be
touched by such powerful performers of this instrument?!?
One other thing i will never forget is the beautiful smile on Goro
Yamaguchi-sensei's face. He is a very small man with a gigantic and
beautiful aura surrounding him. His playing is incredibly refined and
absoultely stunning.
I am so grateful for David Wheeler, Christopher Blasdel and Corydon Sperry
for putting this together! And i am very honored to have been able to
perform one of my solo pieces and an interactive computer piece at the
festival. It was a joy to hear so many different styles of shakuhachi
playing coming from players from all over the world.
Thank you to everyone for their contributions to World Shakuhachi Festival
1998.
I hope another one happens again in a few years!!
phil
Philip Gelb
shakuhachi:performance, lessons
ryokan@wenet.net
c/o Compound I
947 61 street #14
Oakland, CA 94608
510 923 0951
http://www.hooked.net/~ryokan/
independent distributor: Cell Tech Super Blue Green Algae
***************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 12 2000 - 13:23:48 PST