{"id":32660,"date":"2019-05-31T03:59:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=32660"},"modified":"2019-05-30T22:25:24","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T05:25:24","slug":"vico-festival-explores-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/05\/31\/vico-festival-explores-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"VICO festival explores Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The June 12 performance of Moshe Denburg\u2019s The Longing Sky features Yuji Nakagawa on sarangi, left,<\/strong> and Harrie Starreveld on shakuhachi. (photos from VICO)<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO) Global Soundscapes Festival highlights the instruments and traditions of Japan. It features a concerto by Moshe Denburg, and percussionists Jonathan Bernard and Niel Golden, both members of the Jewish community, are among the performers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an organization committed to bringing forward and collaborating with all cultures of the world, we have had a connection with Japanese musical culture since our inception in 2001,\u201d explained Denburg, VICO founding artistic director, of the festival\u2019s focus. \u201cOur present artistic director, Mark Armanini, studied composition with the late Elliot Weisgarber, who was my mentor and friend as well, and was, in a real sense, a progenitor of interculturalism in Vancouver. His own studies and musical explorations took him to Japan and into Japanese music. This is one longstanding Japanese influence in our midst.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe VICO has collaborated with Japanese musicians on many occasions in the past,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe first major encounter was in 2010, at a concert production called Imagined Worlds: Japanese Interventions<\/em>, at which concert we had two visiting Japanese musical virtuosos. In 2013, we produced a mini-festival, together with the Japanese consulate and the Japanese community here, called Chrysanthemums and Maple Leaves<\/em>. One of the main soloists of this festival, Naomi Sato, has been with us for further iterations of this festival concept, in 2014 and again this year. She plays a traditional Japanese mouth organ called the sho. This year, in addition to Ms. Sato, we have Miyama McQueen-Tokita on koto and Harrie Starreveld on shakuhachi.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s opening concert on June 5 at the Waterfront Theatre features Debris<\/em>, a new mini-opera by Rita Ueda, \u201cinspired by the 2011 tsunami and the debris that washed up along the West Coast of North America,\u201d works by Weisgarber, as well as traditional Japanese music. Denburg\u2019s The Longing Sky is part of Raga-tala-Malika! A Garland of Ragas and Talas with VICO and Friends<\/em>, at the Rothstein Theatre on June 12.<\/p>\n

About The Longing Sky, Denburg said, \u201cAfter my tours of musical study in India and Japan, which took place in the mid-\u201980s, I returned to Canada to begin realizing some of my global fusion ideas. Around 1994, I sketched a work which brought together the two traditions I had previously been exposed to, and conceived of a double concerto for shakuhachi<\/em> (Japanese bamboo flute) and sarangi<\/em> (Indian bowed string), instruments that, in their own unique ways, spoke to me of longing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Longing Sky originally came to me as part of a two-movement work that I conceived of then, called Between the Source and the Longing Sky. The source represents our life here on earth, while the longing sky represents the possibility of reaching out to a new life in space. This was and still is our global situation today: we have the means to explore other worlds, but the early promise of moving into space has hardly been realized. The sky is within each of us, and represents our longing for a better world, a larger creative palette, a future vast and free.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work premi\u00e8red in November 2013, with featured soloists Dhruba Ghosh on sarangi and Starreveld on shakuhachi. \u201cIn 2017, at the young age of 59, Dhruba-ji passed away suddenly of a heart attack,\u201d said Denburg. \u201cThis remount of The Longing Sky is a tribute to him, our dear colleague, mentor and friend. Appropriately enough, his student and disciple, Yuji Nakagawa, will be the featured sarangi player, and Harrie will reprise his role on shakuhachi. May Dhruba\u2019s memory always be a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning the techniques involved with playing an unfamiliar instrument, in order to compose for it, begins with one-on-one sessions with the performer, said Denburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did this with several shakuhachi performers over the years, studied many materials and listened to many recordings,\u201d he said. \u201cRegarding sarangi, I found, in the early \u201990s, a very well-known Canadian ethnomusicologist, cellist and sarangi player, Regula Qureshi, who taught, until her recent retirement, at the University of Alberta. My first learning sessions were with her, and I supplemented these with certain materials that I found in ethnomusicological treatises. Of course, one can never really \u2018know\u2019 how to write for an instrument until one has tried to transmit the composition to a performer and listened to the result. In my case, I am still learning how to write for sarangi \u2013 actually, the process never ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother aspect of composing for such an instrument, and indeed for many instruments of the world, is that as they are part of the great \u2018aural traditions\u2019 of the world,\u201d he added. \u201cOne prime example of this is the music of India \u2013 the composer needs to supplement written materials with aural aids; audio materials that are sung, or played on synthesizer or another instrument. But, most importantly, the composer has to sit down with the performer and work on the musical lines he has composed, and sincerely take advice from the performer as to what works and what does not work. This is one aspect of intercultural work that cannot be emphasized enough \u2013 the written composition is not the only way, nor even the best way to create great music. This is humble pie for most Western composers, and one might say an added benefit of intercultural exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the topic of cultural appropriation, Denburg said, \u201cWe have been aware of these issues and, in fact, we may be convening, in 2020 or 2021, a cross-Canada series of discussions exploring best intercultural practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that we have done over the years,\u201d he said of VICO, \u201cwhich we believe has been acceptable practice, is that we have always emphasized the collaborative aspect of the work. We are not expressing someone else\u2019s narrative, but rather our own, new intercultural narrative. And, when we present other cultures, this is precisely what we do \u2013 we present those cultures in performances by accepted exponents of them. So, in a VICO concert, you will often find some demonstration pieces of the collaborating cultures themselves. For example, in Raga-Tala-Malika<\/em>, we will have a traditional raga presentation, probably featuring our guest sarangi player together with our guest tabla player; and a shakuhachi solo may also be presented. These are the undiluted presentations of \u2018other\u2019 cultures. Then, in pieces like The Longing Sky, and others on the program, a truly intercultural piece will be performed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golden will be playing tabla on Denburg\u2019s piece on June 12, and likely accompanying the sarangi player on tabla for a traditional Indian piece in that show. He is also scheduled to play with Starreveld and Nakagawa at the closing concert of the festival, June 13, at the Annex.<\/p>\n

According to his bio, when Golden moved to Victoria from Toronto in 1986, \u201che helped form the world, folk fusion trio, New Earth. Their self-titled CD took them to Seville, Spain, where they represented Canada for six weeks at Expo \u201992.\u2026 Blending African, Indian, Western and other world music, their first CD, Indiscretion<\/em>, earned them a Juno nomination as best global recording of 1995.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the years, Golden has continued to study tabla and has collaborated with many artists, including Denburg for the past 18 years \u2013 Golden is a member of the VICO. He is also a member of the new world music quartet Saffron, performs in the trio DNA, as well as the trio Three Worlds, which recently released a self-titled CD.<\/p>\n

Bernard \u2013 principal percussionist with the Vancouver Island Symphony \u2013 will be playing in the Global Soundscapes Festival on June 8, in Zen and Now<\/em>, and in Raga-Tala-Malika<\/em>. His bio notes: \u201cHis interest in world music has led him to perform Chinese, Javanese, Balinese and Korean music and study traditional and contemporary Chinese percussion in Beijing, Arabic percussion in Cairo and Carnatic rhythm in South India.\u201d He has premi\u00e8red more than 70 chamber works with various ensembles, and has toured throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan.<\/p>\n

For Global Soundscapes concert tickets ($20-$35), more information on the artists and the full performance schedule, visit vi-co.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The June 12 performance of Moshe Denburg\u2019s The Longing Sky features Yuji Nakagawa on sarangi, left, and Harrie Starreveld on shakuhachi. (photos from VICO)\u00a0 This year\u2019s Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO) Global Soundscapes Festival highlights the instruments and traditions of Japan. It features a concerto by Moshe Denburg, and percussionists Jonathan Bernard and Niel Golden, both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[9027,9028,7272,7271],"class_list":["post-32660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-intercultural","tag-japan","tag-moshe-denburg","tag-vico"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}