Show & Tell: Along the Silk Road

Tickets and Information

Visit the Show & Tell: Along the Silk Road website:
http://www.crsny.org

Show & Tell: Along the Silk Road is an evening of music and conversation with kugo (ancient Japanese harp) player Tomoko Sugawara, shakuhachi (Japanese flute) player Ralph Samuelson, and lute player Carlo Valte. The music traces the spread and development of music played on stringed instruments along the famed Silk Road connecting Europe and Asia.

"...astonishingly striking…simply stunning, a sophisticated elegance wrapped around a harp." -- T.J. Nelson, WorldMusicCentral.com

Tomoko Sugawara (kugo harp) was born in Tokyo, Japan, and began playing the Irish harp at age twelve. She took up the concert harp at sixteen, and it was her main instrument when she graduated from Tokyo University of Fine Arts. Since 1991 she has also played reconstructions of the kugo. She has given numerous solo recitals on the concert harp and the kugo in major international venues, such as the World Harp Congress (in Prague and Amsterdam), Indiana University, Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and The British Museum. http://www.kugoharp.com

Her kugo CD "Along the Silk Road" has garnered extraordinary reviews. Invented in Iraq about 1,900 B.C. the kugo instrument spread far and wide. In East Asia the instrument arrived on the Silk Road 550 A.D. and lasted 600 years. In western Asia it died out around 1700 A.D. With harp scholar Bo Lawergren she tries to bring it back to life. She plays music from the time the harp flourished (800 - 1000 A.D. in east Asia, and 1300 A.D. in Persia) as well as pieces recently composed for her.

Ralph Samuelson (shakuhachi flute) began his studies of Kinko school shakuhachi music in 1969 as a graduate student at Wesleyan University under the guidance of Araki Kodo V and later continued shakuhachi studies with Yamato Shudo. He first traveled to Japan in 1971 to become a student of Yamaguchi Goro, and he has been studying the traditional repertoire and playing style of the Kinko school with Yamaguchi-sensei since that time. He began actively teaching and performing in the United States in 1978. Mr. Samuelson has performed traditional and contemporary shakuhachi music at numerous concerts in North America, Asia, and Europe. He has been presented in radio and television broadcasts in Japan and the United States and has recorded for several international record labels. He is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and music schools and teaches the shakuhachi in New York, where he is former director of the Asian Cultural Council, a foundation supporting U.S. - Asia cultural exchange.

Carlo Valte (Arabic lute) Carlo Valte is active as a soloist and ensemble player. Past performances included solo performances at the United Nations and ensemble performances at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall. He is also a cofounder of the Six Hands Guitar Trio, which has performed extensively around Mexico and northeastern United States. He is currently on the faculties of Queensborough Community College and Mannes College of Music. His own education in classical guitar began with Michael Dadap. He later went on to receive his Bachelor of Science and Master of Music degrees at the Mannes College of Music where he was a scholarship student of Frederic Hand. Carlo's interest in research and interpretation of early and middle eastern music led him to study with Simon Shaheen.

Show & Tell is a live music series providing a chamber-music like setting for the performance and discussion of spiritually rooted and mostly acoustic music, primarily of international origin. The series is also open to jazz, classical, and "new" music, and multi-dispclinary collaborations.