In 2019, we celebrated 10 years of the annual Experience Japan Festival at Farmleigh in Dublin. This year the festival invited Tsugaru shamisen player Hibiki Sawada and the taiko and shinobue group with Hiro Hayashida, Luke Takahashi and Miyu Kobayashi. As well as the main festival day, we performed at the Smock Alley Theatre. Other […]

The Reason I Jump I performed at a theatrical production by the National Theatre of Scotland in Glasgow. It was a production of The Reason I Jump, based on a book about autism by the Japanese writer Naoki Higashida. The fantastic cast included performers with autism. It was an innovative production that involved monologues, masques […]

My first performance was at the opening ceremony to celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Japan in 2017. I joined the Experience Japan Taiko Drum Team on shinobue and shakuhachi. I participated in the TCD Creative Challenge, The Music of Silence: its interpretation and performance (https://www.tcd.ie/trinity-creative/challenge/2016/tien-and-duckworth.php). This involved musicians of Korean, Chinese […]

At the annual Experience Japan Festival in the Phoenix Park, I organised a group of Irish and Japanese musicians to join together to play a mix of folk tunes from both countries.

2015 Performances May 4, 2015 Recently, I performed with Hitomi Akutsu (http://moriharp.blog.fc2.com) at the Silk Road Film Festival 2015 (http://silkroadfilmfestival.com) opening ceremony at the Chester Beatty Library. During the ceremony, the acclaimed cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro was presented with a lifetime award. We performed a selection of Japanese and Irish folk and popular tunes. On April […]

2014 Performances July 24, 2014 Experience Japan 2014 was a huge success as always. This year, I was joined by Junshi Murakami and Sean Whelan for performances in the orangerie and garden of Farmleigh House. This year, I also gave several performances with musicians from the Indian Classical Music Society of Ireland. In this performance, […]

ESS Barcelona Summer School 2013 August 5, 2013 The 2013 Barcelona Summer School was organised by Horacio Curti and his team with the European Shakuhachi Society. I attended classes by Koeru Kakizakai, Gunnar Linder, Kiku Day and John Kaizan Neptune. It was also great to enjoy the city of Bacelona and visit various Gaudi landmarks such […]

Aid Japan for Children January 17, 2012 On Novermber 24th, 2011, I performed at a benefit concert for tsunami relief in St. Ann’s Church in Dublin. I played ‘Tamuke’ as a solo and also in the premiere of ‘Suite for Japan’ by composer and performer Martin Tourish, a piece involving Japanese and Irish instruments with […]

European Shakuhachi Society Summer School 2011 August 28, 2011 The European Shakuhachi Society Summer School 2011 took place in SOAS, London from July 28-31. For the first time in Europe, Min’yo or Japanese folk song was taught by Endo Yoshihiro. He was joined in workshops and in performance by David Hughes, Yoshie Asano-Campbell and Silvia […]

Experience Japan 2010 April 27, 2010 Ireland held its’ first “Experience Japan Day” at Farmleigh House in Dublin. It was organised by UCD, OPW and a group of dedicated volunteers. Junshi Murakami (Irish harp) and I played a number of Japanese folk tunes to fit in with this cherry blossom festival or hanami. Japanese Gardens […]