ESS ONLINE EVENTS 2024 – 25
play • learn • compose • share • listen • talk • enjoy 🙂
We are happy to announce the ESS Online Events for 2024-25! After the success of our last event series, we have another wide selection of events lined up for you. We invite you to seven events spread out between 3. November 2024 and 17. May 2025. As we always curious to try out new ideas, we will have some new formats and hope there is something for everybody – we are certainly very excited of what is coming up!
Quick overview of events:
3. November 2024 Event #1
ESS Sunday Brunch with Kyle Chōmei Kamal Helou
10. + 17. November & 1 December 2024 Event #2
Composing for Shakuhachi with Chris Molina
19. January 2025 Event #3
ESS New Year Concert – ESS Members & guests
15.+16. February 2025 Event #4
Intermediate/Advanced workshop with Zenyoji Keisuke,
Christopher Yohmei Blasdel, Martha Reika Fabrique, Jean-François Suizan Lagrost
2. March 2025 Event #5
ESS Sunday Brunch with Hélène Seiyu Codjo
4. May 2025 Event #6
ESS Sunday Brunch with tba
17. May 2025 Event #7
Anime & Game Tunes with Seimo Yamaguchi
The season starts off on the 3. November with the new format of ESS Shakuhachi Sunday Brunch, a mix of informal gathering and formal teaching open to all levels, but in particular we welcome all you shakuhachi beginners and elementary players. The Sunday Brunch is a free event to attend and will be led by an experienced shakuhachi player and teacher. Each brunch starts off with blowing some ro-buki together to get into the spirit, followed by an open forum where we will accommodate teachings about techniques, an open mic kind of slot, where you can present your playing to get feedback from the session leader, talks and other type of presentations or discussions as well as Q & A about shakuhachi related issues. Finally the last hour or so, there will be a specific piece taught.
Our ‘Chefs de partie’ for the upcoming Sunday Shakuhachi Brunch are Kyle Chōmei Kamal Helou (3. November 2024), Hélène Seiyu Codjo (2. March 2025) and a yet to be announced programme on the 4. May 2025.
November sees also the start of a 3-session shakuhachi course about composition skills and technique. We are thrilled to have Chris Molina, shakuhachi composer and performer, to guide us through the basic ingredients and approaches to write and compose music for shakuachi. This course is open to all levels, and in particular welcomes people with no prior composing experience too. The initial two sessions of Composing for Shakuhachi – A Beginner’s Guide for Turning Ideas into Music will be on 10. and 17. November. After a two week period for creation and polishing we then have a final session on 1. December, where participants will each present a short composition, either as live performance or recorded mp3, and where we will then share our feedback.
Next year the programme continues with the ESS New Year Concert on 19 January 2025. As already in 2024 we placed the annual online gathering to a quieter moment in the year and we hope it gives us again the energy and strength to welcome and sustain us through 2025. We have not finalised the details here but the programme will involve our ESS membership.
As we continue our event series we have a dedicated intermediate/advanced workshop lined up for the 15+16 February 2025. Here we have from Japan Zenyoji Keisuke (Kimpu-ryū Nezasa-ha), from USA Christopher Yohmei Blasdel (Kinko-ryu/Chikumeisha) and Martha Reika Fabrique (Mujuan/Jin Nyodo) as well our European guest Jean-François Suizan Lagrost (Shin-Tozan-ryū). The sessions will feature a mix of traditional honkyoku and sankyoku pieces. Not to miss, for any level.
As mentioned we will have two more Sunday Shakuhachi Brunch in 2025, starting with Helene Seiyu Codjo on 2. March and the tba programme on 4. May.
This already brings us to May and our last event, and again to an area of shakuhachi music we have not explored that much within the ESS. On 17. May we will welcome Seimo Yamaguchi to introduce and teach us his favourite Anime & Game Tunes. Cosplay is an option of course. 🙂
SCHEDULES & CONTENT
Please visit the individual event pages to see relevant schedules.
We do not anticipate that general start and end times given for each day on the schedules will change but the individual lesson durations within may be amended to suit the evolving teaching content. So check back occasionally to see if there were any changes or updates.
TEACHING MATERIALS
If there are study materials (score, fingering charts, mp3, etc..) for a workshop provided by the teacher we aim to make them available to the registered participants 1-2 weeks before event commences. For the workshops using a score, we suggest you print a hardcopy beforehand.
ZOOM RECORDINGS
Dependent on permission by the teacher we will make recordings of the zoom sessions availabe to the registered participants to view online for about two weeks after the event finishes.
By participating in the event, you agree to (1) the sessions being recorded. And (2) these recordings being made available to view for about 2 weeks after the event to other workshop participants. You are not allowed to record and/or disseminate the Zoom sessions yourself.
ZOOM / ZOOM LINK
The online platform for the event series is Zoom. Please note that you will need to install the Zoom application on your device to attend. But there is no need to open a Zoom account. If you have any questions about technical aspects of Zoom please contact us beforehand.
We will also send out a the relevant zoom link and a guide with zoom set-up and workshop etiquette a couple of days before the event.
LEVELS
Levels are never clear cut and kind of subjective so please note: It is sometimes useful for participants to attend workshops at a higher level than that at which they find themselves. If one attempts to play at least slightly beyond one’s perceived capacity, one often discovers that, particularly in the workshop context, one is carried by the group to a higher level. Additionally, even if one cannot play at the required level, the experience of hearing a piece taught by an expert teacher can lead to insights into the nature of one’s own limitations and how to overcome them. So simply sitting in on and listening to a workshop at a higher level can be a valuable experience.
Vice versa e.g. someone of elementary level, or even people considering themselves as intermediate level, may still benefit from lessons aimed at beginners as they cover basic principles like e.g. good posture, correct breathing and embouchure.
Last but not least, if you are an aspiring shakuhachi teacher the courses will offer an opportunity to gain invaluable insight by seeing experienced teachers and players giving workshop lessons tailored and structured around the different needs of beginners to advanced level students.
Reference descriptions
Beginner. This embraces all players who just picked up the instrument and started to blow to anybody who spend already a short while with the instrument and can produce sound and pitches in otsu more or less stable.
Elementary assumes that the player can obtain kari notes in otsu with reasonable security, is familiar with kan notes, even if still learning to produce them reliably, and has some basic idea of meri notes, even if intonation may be unstable.
Intermediate assumes that the player is secure with kari notes in otsu and kan, and is capable of producing meri notes reliably in both octaves, with reasonably reliable intonation
Advanced assumes that the player has a high degree of proficiency and control in production of meri and kari tones in otsu and kan, and is familiar with dai-kan notes. Intonation is reliable and stable, with good control of shaping and shading of dynamics, timbre and pitch.