The Universal Flute:
A Concert of Contemporary American Music for the Shakuhachi
Performed by Ralph Samuelson
This program features compositions for the Japanese bamboo flute, shakuhachi, by American composers, including works by Henry Cowell, Elizabeth Brown, Richard Teitelbaum, and Barbara White.
Ralph Samuelson is a performer and teacher of the Japanese bamboo flute, shakuhachi. He was trained in the classical tradition of the Kinko School under the tutelage of the late Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi, as well as by Shudo Yamato and Kodo Araki V. He began shakuhachi studies in 1969 as a graduate student in the World Music Program at Wesleyan University and studied traditional music in Tokyo in the 1970s under the guidance of the distinguished musicologist Fumio Koizumi. Mr. Samuelson has performed in leading concert venues in New York, around the United States, and in Europe and Asia. He has been presented in live radio and television broadcasts in the US and Japan and has recorded for Music of the World, Lyrichord Records, CBS Masterworks, Axiom, Tzadik, and other labels. In 1991 and in 2008 he was the featured shakuhachi soloist in the New York City Ballet's production of Jerome Robbins' "Watermill", with music by Teiji Ito. In spring 2011 he was an artist-in-residence at the Lou Harrison House in Joshua Tree,California; and in fall 2011 he was a guest artist at the Seoul Institute of the Arts in Korea. Since 1976 Mr. Samuelson has also worked as a foundation professional facilitating and supporting international cultural exchange, and from 1991 to 2008 he served as director of the Asian Cultural Council, a foundation supporting exchanges in the arts and humanities between the United States and Asia.
Cost: $10 general, $5 student/senior