Tones of Hope: Music for Shakuhachi
Ralph Samuelson
GENRE
Concert / Shakuhachi
WHEN
March 2026
Ralph Samuelson offers an evening of shakuhachi music honoring the souls of lives lost and the resilience and compassion of the Japanese people on the 15th anniversary of the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear explosion in northern Japan.
Featuring tanka poems by survivors, with guest artists:
Perry Young, reader, shakuhachi
Elizabeth Brown, shakuhachi
Magdalena Solé, photographs of Fukushima
Shakuhachi
The shakuhachi, the vertical bamboo flute of Japan, has become a vibrant participant in the international world of music. Its centuries-old tradition is based on a repertoire of solo pieces developed by Zen monks as a form of spiritual practice. These pieces, called honkyoku (“original/true pieces”) are still performed today, along with an expanding repertoire of modern and contemporary solo and chamber music.
Ralph Samuelson
Ralph Samuelson has been a pioneer in the growth of shakuhachi music in the United States through decades of teaching and performing. He was trained in the classical tradition of the Kinko School of Shakuhachi by the late Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi and other distinguished teachers in Japan. He has performed across North America, Europe, and Asia and has recorded for numerous labels. Ralph will share several traditional and contemporary works for shakuhachi in an evening of Hope at Apartment 1.
Credit
Artist Ralph Samuelson
Coming March 2026