Asia Society
and The Japan Foundation
present

Hogaku:
New Sounds of Japan

January 12, 2008, 8:00 pm
Asia Society
725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, New York

Re-envision Japanese traditions in a contemporary context. Two exciting new interpreters of Japanese traditional music have taken the contemporary music scene by storm. Wariki (above right), a quartet with Akira Katogi on taiko (drum) and kagura (Japanese traditional dance), Shunsuke Kimura on fue (flute), Etsuro Ono on Tsugaru shamisen (plucked lute) and fue (flute), and Shingo Ikegami on koto (zither), breathe new life into the traditional folk arts of Japan. The Goto and Obama Duo (above left) consist of Yukihiro Goto on biwa (lute) and Akihito Obama on shakuhachi (flute). Each group extends the vocabulary of these traditional forms to reach new generations of music fans.

7:00 pm Pre-performance lecture-demonstration
8:00 pm Performance (reception to follow)

Click here to purchase tickets

Artists' bios and instrument descriptions

The Wariki Quartet's website

Yukihiro Goto

Akihito Obama