concerts

Norfolk Library hosts traditional Japanese flautists

Norfolk Library hosts traditional Japanese flautists

Araki and Samuelson performed at Norfolk Library Sunday, Oct. 27.

Alec Linden

The Norfolk Library hosted a unique shakuhachi performance on Sunday, Oct. 27 from expert players Kodō Araki VI and Ralph Samuelson.

The shakuhachi is a bamboo Japanese flute which originated in Buddhist temples as a meditation tool in the 17th century. Araki is one in a long line of shakuhachi masters — his given name is Hanzaburō after his great-great-grandfather who is a legendary figure in the instrument’s history, and who made the instrument Araki played on Sunday.

The name he performs under — Kodō — is a professional title that designates the head of the family’s shakuhachi guild, which is the oldest in Japan. Araki inherited the name at his father’s retirement in 2009.

Eileen Fitzgibbons, events coordinator at the Norfolk Library, emphasized to the crowd that this would be an unusual and rare performance while introducing the performers. “I feel so honored that this music will grace our walls,” she said.

The instrument itself is deceptively dynamic, at times bold and commanding while other times fluttering and delicate. The music was distinctly somber and contemplative, consisting of long, drawn out tones and lilting melodies, accented by occasional flutters and trills.

The duo played five pieces, consisting of traditional pieces composed by monks known as honkyoku and several of Araki’s own compositions. The titles of the works were uniformly naturalistic, evoking deer bleating in the forest and leaves fluttering down on a cold evening.

“All the best Japanese music seems to be composed about the autumn,” Araki said.

Araki noted that the shakuhachi tradition is unique in that “it’s not musical in origin,” but rather is rooted in Buddhist meditation practices. The instrument became musically popular in the mid-18th century in large part due to Araki’s great-great grandfather Kodō II, he said, who fought to preserve the tradition when the instrument was outlawed during the Meiji Restoration.

Araki is based near Seattle, but has performed at the Norfolk Library several times before, and expressed his gratitude to the Library for hosting the performance. He said he’ll be back with Samuelson “whenever they’ll have us.”

concerts

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
history

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit