Festival 2000

February, 2000 marked the start of the Music From Japan Festival 2000 which included performances in Fukushima, Japan, Washington, DC and New York City.

Both the February 9 Washington, DC performance, (held at Japan Information and Cultural Center, in the Japanese Embassy) and the February 13 New York City concert (held at Merkin Concert Hall) featured the renowned master of the Tsugaru shamisen, Chikuzan Takahashi II, who performed traditional pieces for shamisen and voice including "Shamisen Yosare," "Tsugaru Aiya-bushi," and "The Sand Dunes of Tosa"; her own compositions set to texts by the avant-garde poet-playwright Shuji Terayama and Misuzu Kaneko; and shamisen improvisation.

The New York concert was followed by a symposium - "Music from Japan: Searching Its Origins" and a keynote lecture - "The Aesthetic Roots of Japanese Music" during which musicologist Tomiko Kojima traced the roots of Japanese music to its earliest existence. Interpreter Sharon Ann Nakazato moderated the panel.

On February 12, Music From Japan held an evening of events in New York at Merkin Concert Hall starting with a lecture on the music & life of Hikaru Hayashi, which featured Mr. Hayashi with Sharon Ann Nakazato as interpreter.

This was followed by a concert spotlighting the works of Hikaru Hayashi.