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Below is information on the planning for the 2004 U.S. Tour of Nitta Oyako
Click Here for U.S. Tour Schedule
Nitta Arriving in U.S. April 12
Flights are booked and plans continue to crystalize. With the recent communication from the Japan Foundation that the Performing Arts Japan program has awarded this project a substantial grant, we are moving ahead with a tour that will bring Nitta Oyako to Indiana, PA; Warren, PA; Easton, PA, Punxsutawney, PA; Harrisburg, PA; Frostburg, MD; New York, NY; Washington, DC; Bloomington, IN; and Minneapolis, MN. A wide variety of concerts, community events, and outreach is plan for all of these cities with thousands expected to experience this unique and culturally rich repertoire of traditional Japanese music, peppered with bits of jazz and other western styles.
For
their IUP performing on April 21, Nitta Oyako will join with the IUP Little
Big Band and will include a variety of world premiere arrangements that
marry traditional Japanese music with sounds of the West, including jazz.
We will also premiere a new piece written by young shamisen player, Masahiro
Nitta, who has been dubbed, by some, as the "Bela Fleck of the shamisen."
(click
here to see a poster for the IUP performance)
The combined concert will also be performed at the Whitaker Center's Sunoco Performance Theater, Harrisburg, PA, Friday, May 6, at 8 p.m. Click here for information on how to get tickets for that concert.
These concerts are the next step in a collaboration that started last October 2004 when two IUP music professors visited Nitta Oyako in Japan and began the discussions. Nitta Oyako will return to Japan May 7. That will mark the beginning of the next phase with our plans, should funding be made available, to take our ensemble and the name of Indiana, Pennsylvania, and IUP to tour Japan in May 2006.
NITTA OYAKO: Parent and Child
Consisting of son, Masahiro, and father, Hiorshi, together and separately, Nitta Oyako continue to be in great demand, performing extensively throughout Japan and other parts of Asia. Their tour in the U.S. during the spring of 2005 will be their first American tour. The Nitta Oyako performing team was formed in 2000 after Masahiro won the grand prize of the National Tsugaru Shamisen Competition. The repertoire of Nitta Oyako comprises a range from traditional Japanese folk tunes (Minyo), original tunes based on tradition, and even a few pop music covers and a bit of jazz.
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Masahiro
Nitta
Masahiro’s interest in the shamisen was sparked in 1998 when,
as a junior high school student, he attended the celebration for his
father’s victory in the 1997 National Tsugaru Shamisen Competition.
He didn’t have much experience at the time, but his father’s
win both inspired him and boosted his confidence. In just seven months
he won the All Japan Junior/Senior High School Competition. Now his
father is not only his instructor and mentor, but also his partner,
working with him to organize their various projects. Since releasing
three CDs and having appeared on television several times, they are
receiving support from many quarters. Masahiro wants to follow in the
footsteps of his father as a second-generation shami-sen player. Masahiro’s
first CD was a solo album in 2001 titled Shamisen Kid followed by Yuki
in October 2002. Both recordings were under the King Records label,
a major Japanese recording company. The father-son pair debuted soon
after in November 2002 with the album, Oyako (“Parent and Child”).
Their future looks promising with major magazine, newspaper, and television
critics following the pair’s career with great expectations.
• November
1998: All-Japan Junior/Senior High School Shamisen Competition winner
• May 2000: Became the youngest ever to win first seat in the
National Tsugari Shamisen Competition in Kanagi
• May 200: Won first seat in the National Competition in Kanagi
for the second time
• April 2002: Japanese Folk Music Association Tsugaru Shamisen
All-Japan Competition winner
Hiroshi
Nitta
Hailing from Sapporo, Japan, Hiroshi Nitta made the decision to become
a professional shamisen player when he was in high school. He has focused
on the shamisen and honed his talents for thirty-five years. As a professional,
he follows his own instincts in music and technique and his music, as
well as his performances, have proven to inspire deep emotion. Hiroshi
has won numerous awards and has appeared on several national television
programs in Japan. He also founded a new shamisen association—Kougenryu—to
promote the shamisen. As the leader, he holds the honorary title “Iemoto”
(which means literally “the root of a family,” as it was
given to the “first man”, or founder, of a noble family
in past times). In addition to concerts, various events, and demonstrations,
he now performs all across Japan with promising young shamisen players
and with his son, Masahiro. He plays with enthusiasm and gives a great
deal of himself in his music. In November 2002, his first CD was released,
Oyako, in which he and his son debuted as a father-son duo.
• October
1997: Won first seat in the National Tsugaru Shamisen Competition in
Tokyo
• April 2001: Won the Special Judge Award in the National Tsugaru
Shamisen Competition in Tokyo
• April 2002: Won the Best Player Award in the National Tsugaru
Shamisen Competition in Tokyo
About the
Shamisen
The shamisen, often spelled “samisen” in English is a traditional
Japanese long-necked and unfretted instrument with three strings of
waxed silk played with a large pick-like object called a “bachi”
(plectrum). Sometimes referred to as the “Japanese guitar,”
its construction and appearance more closely resembles the banjo with
its sound retaining its own unique resonance and special traditions.
Tsugaru shamisen is traditionally a louder, stronger style of playing
used for festivals, street performances, and other events conducted
in larger and more festive venues.
Tsugaru shamisen conveys well the heart and soul of the Japanese. Generally it is said that Japanese people have a delicate sensitivity. In Japanese terms, it is described as the "Wabi and Sabi" [(elegant rusticity/taste for the simple and quiet) and (rust/ deep mysterious beauty)]. Its spirit can be well described through the sounds of Tsugaru shamisen. The theme of "Wabi and Sabi " is how feelings and passion can be expressed in peaceful tranquility and stillness. One prominent example is the tea ceremony where, in a quiet tea room, the host prepares tea for guests while sharing their feelings. Every motion and process of the ceremony is done with quiet passion. In the end, it is consolidated in the condensed bowl of tea. "Wabi and Sabi " expressed in the Tsugaru shamisen might be easier to understand. The various emotions in the delicate sounds and the melancholy in the larger sound of the instrument can be heard as a gospel or soul music of Japanese ancestors who wished for life's happiness.
Recently, as with so many other traditional fields in Japan and across the globe, Tsugaru shamisen has fewer successors to hand down its culture. Masahiro Nitta is one of the few young artists who have decided to dedicate himself to the tradition as well as to discover its new boundaries.
The
Bigger Picture/IUP Connection
For the past two years, The Lively Arts at http://old.www.iup.edu/images/iup_top.gif
has been exploring Japanese cultural exchange in direct communication
with the U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network at Arts Midwest and the Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts. This work included consultation assistance and presenting
of “No-To: Memory Fades,” a dance collaboration of Tokyo’s
Nibroll and Pittsburgh’s Attack Theatre that toured the U.S. in
2003. In May 2004, IUP hosted the Tokyo performance theater troupe, Mizuto
Abura, in conjunction with a tour managed by the Japan Society of New
York. The Lively Arts has also been instrumental in promoting other Japanese
and international projects throughout the state and region.
For Nitta Oyako, we are making a substantial step forward in our international activity by planning a collaborative concert with this Japan shamisen duo. In October 2004 and with support from CTN and the PCA, a small delegation from IUP will travel to Japan to meet with Masahiro and Hiroshi Nitta. While there, two IUP instrumental music professors will work alongside Nitta to develop a concert program that helps to marry traditional shamisen music with Western music and vice versa, with an emphasis on American jazz. This concert program will be further developed over the ensuing months in Japan and the U.S. with Nitta Oyako coming to IUP in April 2005.
Nitta Oyako will perform their regular concert in various venues across the U.S. However, for the performance at IUP and selected venues in Pennsylvania, the concert will be a combination of Nitta Oyako’s regular repertoire plus pieces developed through this collaborative process and involving a select ensemble of IUP students and faculty. It is our hope that this program will then tour Japan with Nitta Oyako the following season.
Click Here for U.S. Tour Schedule
Management and Acknowlegements
Nitta Oyako
Representation
Mitsuo Tamura and Yuko Kuroda, Station Co., Ltd.
Tokyo, Japan
U.S. Tour Lead
Presenter
Hank Knerr, Lively Arts at http://old.www.iup.edu/images/iup_top.gif
Indiana, Pennsylvania USA
Booking and
Visas for U.S. Tour
Alison Loerke, ALIA Agency
Seattle, Washington USA
Consultation
and Supervision for U.S. Tour and Collaboration Project
Kyoko Yoshida, U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, a project of
Arts Midwest
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
Nitta
Oyako U.S. Tour 2005 has been made possible, in part, by The Japan Foundation
through the Performing Arts JAPAN program and the Pennsylvania Council
on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, in cooperation
with the U.S. /Japan Cultural Trade Network, a project of Arts Midwest.
Nitta Oyako U.S. Tour 2005 has been produced and coordinated in collaboration with Station Co., Ltd, ALIA Agency, The Lively Arts at http://old.www.iup.edu/images/iup_top.gif, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, a project of Arts Midwest.
Special Thanks
Naoko Tamura; Yumi Inomata; Ayako Kuwabara; Philip Horn and James Woland,
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; Mark J. Davidson, American Embassy,
Tokyo; Ken Moskowitz, Yasushi Yokouchi, and Joanne Giles, Tokyo American
Center; Edward Leferink, Alan M. Zaboski, Marty Schmidt, and Tatsuo
Hyakawa , U.S. Army Band, Camp Zama, Japan; David Fraher and Robert
Stearns, Arts Midwest
IUP hospitality and translating services were coordinated in cooperation with the IUP Japan Student Organization and its members and with the dedicated assistance of JSO officers Ikuko Fujiwara and Kozo Matsubara. Additional appreciation is extended to Dr. Stuart Chandler and Ms. Julie Wyse. We also extend a hearty “konichiwa” to our IUP alums living in Japan with whom we met last fall and whose support continues to assist many aspects of this project.
www.nittaoyako.com
The
research and development for a collaboration between Masahiro Nitta
and the IUP Department of Music is supported in part by the Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, in cooperation
with the U.S. /Japan Cultural Trade Network, a project of Arts Midwest.
Additional funding for the U.S. tour has been provided by the Performing
Arts Japan program of the Japan Foundation.
Click Here for U.S. Tour Schedule
Booking/Engagements
Alison
Loerke
ALIA Agency
12258 12th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98177
Tel: 206-525-2425
Fax: 206-525-9891
Lead U.S. Presenter
Hank Knerr
Director of Public Events
College of Fine Arts
http://old.www.iup.edu/images/iup_top.gif
104 Waller Hall
Indiana, PA 15705
724-357-2547
724-357-7899 (fax)
hknerr@iup.edu •
www.arts.iup
Japan Contact
Mitsuo Tamura and Yuko Kuroda
Station Co. Ltd.
2F Sakuma Building, 11 Arakicho
Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo, Japan
+81(0)3-3358-1901
+81(0)3-3353-4830 (fax)
tamura@station.li •
www.station.li
Click Here for U.S. Tour Schedule
Maintained by Hank Knerr • Last Update: Thursday, August 19, 2004 11:32