Tuesday, 26 February 2013
Renowned Japanese Musicians in New Zealand

Jo-Ha-Kyu (meaning “beginning, break, rapid”) brings to New Zealand two of Japan’s finest musicians. Who would have thought that you could create new levels of musical virtuosity with the humble recorder? How about combining it with one of the oldest and most elegant traditional instruments of Japan; the thirteen stringed and two metre long Koto.

Lynda Chanwai-Earle attends a workshop at Sounz Studio in Wellington, given by a pair of renowned Japanese musicians on tour to New Zealand. Tosiya Suzuki is one of the world’s foremost contemporary recorder performers, taking the instrument to acrobatic levels as he plays two at once. He is accompanied by Koto player Nanae Yoshimura as she sweeps across the Koto’s strings  with extraordinary dexterity.  They are here to collaborate with our own leading composers and musicians; Samuel Holloway, Dylan Lardelli, Chris Gendall and Jack Body.