[Shaku] news from the North-South Asia music corridor

Dear friends in shaku-society,

Warm greetings in the middle of spring from Gunma Prefecture in the very center of Honshu. Hope y'all are staying healthy as can be, and nurturing and being nurtured by music in your environment. Back in Japan a month ago after a 43-day absence for 20+ music and education events in Sri Lanka and India, have launched my second newly designed course 'Systematics through Indian Music' at Keio University (the other course, to be offered again this autumn semester, is 'Listening to Asia'), done a few two-day intensive training seminars for another university, performed at a splendid Zen temple, etc - keeping occupied, all the while trying not to notice what is happening (not happening!) with the bottom line. Planning and executing the recent tour had taken all my attention since last autumn, no time to make a sched in Japan; and now working on schedules for USA and Vietnam later this year, after Sakiko and I go to Vietnam mid-May for a short vacation.
  
Posters, schedules, photos and other updates on this and other IJMEA projects are on our expanded website www.ijmea.com - the English version will soon be reformatted to handle the volume, but the Japanese site is extensive and well organized; we have been targeting Japan first and foremost IAW our 'of the people, by the people, for the people' preferred principle in cultural development here in Asia.
  
Privileged to be involved through music in various other disciplines, I was pleased to initiate the first int'l gerontology conference in S Asia (jointly held by national Andhra University and a vibrant NPO from Tokyo) http://www.carefit.org/india_conference09/, with former Pres Abdul Kalam (India's most widely respected living public figure) making his first visit to the city of Visakhapatnam to inaugurate the conference so elegantly, barely blinking as 1200 univ students stormed the stage - no, not in protest, they would have hugged him to death.
  
In addition to large charity concerts for orphanage and mental health issues in both Sri Lanka and India (for which SriLankan Airlines generously provided my int'l travel support) and sacred music and university events, I performed in New Delhi for Japanese Embassy in the JNU Japan Culture Festival, and in Colombo for the Indian Embassy in the Indian Cultural Centre. Also, as expected, on this tour the unexpected provided indelible memories - e.g.. my concert for Embassy of USA in Colombo on 20th Feb, completed successfully in spite of the air attack (two LTTE sea planes, 9/11 copycat style), ensuing city-wide blackout, and other irregularities that evening. Later in India,the privilege of a private meeting with a maneater tiger in U.P. by virtue of our respective photos appearing in the same edition of a newspaper in A.P. - these things are only possible in the ultra-diverse world of South Asia. By contrast, the silence in Japan is deafening...
 
A one-hr broadcast of our 08 March 09 concert and related interviews at Sir Muthu Venkathasuba Rao Concert Hall (finest/largest in Chennai) was aired as a SS (Southern Spice) TV program "Center Stage" on Sunday 29 March from 3:30 pm, throughout India and Southeast Asia. The concert featured artists, instruments and styles of some five cultures, along with unprecedented collaboration with a Tai Chi master in a dance-drama (Konkichi, a story I had translated from Japanese and was published by Oxford Univ Press, also in 3 Indian languages by Sahitya Akademi) and other dance and music items which served to highlight the compatibility of the music and instruments of Asia, North & South, with five Asian languages also represented in song texts. All concerts in India and Sri Lanka were co-performed with top local talent, more projects planned for next winter. Shakuhachi has been a naturalized Indian since 1992, koto is gathering enthusiasts more readily, as it is approachable and most versatile. Hopefully, these efforts will bring more Indian young people out to pursue related possibilities so I can concentrate on cleaning up my cluttered hovel and taking care of other chronically neglected things, like my ultra-understanding wife!

Planning to be in USA Aug-Sep this year, would hope to see some of you along the way. Can be available for performance (offer hours of variety on my own, or can work with other artists of your or my choice), lectures (specific or interdisciplinary), workshops (shakuhachi and/or koto,vocal, Nada Yoga), lessons, party and/or partying! Made music and memories with some in the Northeast last autumn. Was blessed to have many stay for my late session in the four-day Society for Ethnomusicology conference at Wesleyan U, including an exhuberant Wm Malm. In the performance programs (with separate times and venues based on regions of the world) that have been added to the schedule from this 50th anniversary conference last year, my shaku-raga items with a fine tabla accompanist were warmly welcomed by well-honed (and patient!) ears, as the S Asian program ran long past midnight (predictably), while the E Asian program (likewise predictably) was on and off stage totally on schedule. To appreciate both styles of action and reaction in time for what they both give and take, I consider 'time' in its myriad meanings in music, 'efficiency' in culture and society, 'education' and 'responsibility' in their timeless contexts. Who would be first shall be last, the script and/or the sound (accepting or replacing 1-12 &or tick-tock, with silence available as spice), Nada Brahma and Ma 'ma', - things getting very interesting between the lines, between the fire and the ice here on the South-North Asian axis.

Anyway, happy to hear from anyone out there, any time or topic.
  
Best wishes,
Tim Hoffman www.ijmea.com

Lecturer, Keio University
Director Indo-Japanese Music Exchange Association
Senior Performing & Creative Artist Fellow, American Institute of Indian Studies

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Received on Sat May 2 12:49:04 2009