[Shaku] Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos dinner/concert, Oakland 4-16-11

Time
Saturday, April 16 · 8:00pm - 11:00pm
Location
Loft in Oakland
Created By
In the Mood for Food, vegan catering and dinner/concerts, Alcvin
Ryuzen Ramos
More Info
Saturday, April 16, 2011
8 pm
limited seating for 20
$55/person

..Soup
Cauliflower miso chowder with peas and favas

Salad
Thai Laab
Stir fried tofu, mushrooms and sprouts with lime, chilis, ginger,
garlic and peanuts served in lettuce leaves

Small plate
tempeh in wasabi broth.
our renowned tempeh fried to a crisp served with sauteed seasonal
vegetables in a broth made from fresh wasabi roots

Entree

Dessert

Performer will be shakuhachi player, Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos visiting us
from Vancouver

Koten Honkyoku Dinner

Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos wil give a performance of shakuhachi koten
honkyoku (solo sacred shakuhachi music)

Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos

Born to Filipino parents in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan in 1969, Ramos
moved with his family to the United States, at the age of six. Ramos
became interested in Shakuhachi while attending the University of
California in Santa Barbara. He returned to Japan and studied
Shakuhachi under several teachers including Katsuya Yokoyama, Kaoru
Kakizakai, Teruo Furuya, and Atsuya Okuda. Under them he learned the
instrument’s varied repertoire, honkyoku (original zen pieces),
sankyoku (secular chamber music), and gendai kyoku (new style pieces.)

In 2001, he received a shihan (master) license from Katsuya Yokoyama,
the head teacher of his school and leading exponent of the instrument,
and founder of the International Shakuhachi Training Centre. In 2000,
Ramos took the runner up spot in the under 40 all-Japan Shakuhachi
Competition in Tokyo.

In 2008, in recognition of his skill and spreading Shakuhachi around
the world, Alcvin received an honorary Dai Shihan (grand master)
license from another one of Japan's greatest players and teachers,
Yoshinobu Taniguchi, taking the new name, "Ryuzen" (Dragon Meditation)
making him the first Canadian and one of only a handful of non-
Japanese to receive this esteemed honor.

Ramos also studied the Satsuma biwa (Japanese lute) intensively for a
year with Yukio Tanaka to deepen his understanding of Japanese music
and aesthetics. He is also a composer and player of a variety of
instruments including the shinobue, hichiriki, guqin, and has been
experimenting with new ways of playing traditional instruments as well
as with synthesized and electronic music. But keeps koten honkyoku the
basis for all his music.

Ramos now lives in Canada, where he is the director of the Bamboo-In,
a Shakuhachi retreat centre on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.

Ramos is a craftsman who produces finely crafted hocchiku flutes (a
less refined Shakuhachi). With an intimate knowledge of the koten
honkyoku (traditional solo zen-inspired pieces) and the structure of
the flute, each of Ramos’ flutes is made especially for honkyoku
playing. Ramos believes that honkyoku expresses and utilizes the total
spirit-sound of the Shakuhachi.

Every few years, Ramos takes students of the Shakuhachi to Japan where
they harvest bamboo for making Shakuhachi and visit sacred places
around the country in order to deepen their experience of the
instrument. Then in the summer, Ramos teaches how to craft hocchiku
for honkyoku playing. He believes that making one’s own hocchiku gives
the student a more holistic and intimate experience of the instrument.

Please contact me if you would like more information or to make
reservations

phil

philip gelb
phil@philipgelb.com
http://philipgelb.com
http://philipgelb.blogspot.com/

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Received on Fri Mar 4 10:27:29 2011