Join us to experience the meditative sounds of the shakuhachi flute. The shakuhachi flute is tightly connected to Buddhism. During Japan’s Edo period (1603-1868), monks of the Fuke Zen Buddhist sect played this flute while begging for alms. The monks also used the flute for meditation, and the spiritual use of this flute became known as suizen, translated as “blowing Zen.” The aim was ichion jobutsu, or “to achieve enlightenment through a single note.”
September 8 at 2:00 PM: Shakuhachi Flute Performance Ralph Samuelson, Shakuhachi Flute
A performance of music on the Shakuhachi flute, an instrument closely associated with Zen Buddhism in Japan.
Ralph Samuelson is a shakuhachi performer and teacher and a pioneer in the growing presence of shakuhachi music in the US. He was trained in the classical tradition of the Kinko School of shakuhachi by the late Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi and has performed traditional and contemporary music throughout the world. He was the shakuhachi soloist in the New York City Ballet production of Jerome Robbins’ “Watermill” with music by Teiji Ito and has recorded for Innova, Tzadik, CBS Masterworks, and other labels. Ralph is a regular visiting artist with the Iwate Art Project in Japan; is an international advisor for the Seoul Institute of the Arts in Korea; and is the former director of the Asian Cultural Council.
