Alcvin Takegawa Ramos
Bio
Alcvin Takegawa Ramos was born in Kanagawa-ken, Japan, in
1969. His interest in eastern religions, martial arts and meditation
inspired him to study the shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and its
various musical styles including honkyoku (sacred Zen music),
sankyoku (secular ensemble music) and gendai kyoku
(contemporary pieces).
Eventually Ramos received a shihan (master) license from Katsuya
Yokoyama, a renowned master-teacher of the instrument and
founder of the International Shakuhachi Training Centre in Bisei-
cho, Japan.
The director of the Bamboo-In, a shakuhachi retreat centre on the
Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada, Ramos is also the
founder of the Vancouver Shakuhachi Festival held at the University
of British Columbia every four years in November.
Ramos has also studied and practiced Zen meditation for many
years and defines honkyoku as the aural expression of Zen. The
actual playing of the shakuhachi is said to bring the musician to a
Zen state of self-knowledge.
Ramos plays with various musical ensembles from Canada and
Japan, and maintains an active schedule of solo shakuhachi
performances in Japan, Europe and North America.
Satomi Saeki
Bio
Born in Miyazaki, Japan, Satomi Saeki was introduced to Japanese
traditional music by her father, a shakuhachi-player and -maker.
She studied koto (horizontal harp), sangen/shamisen (3-stringed
Japanese lute) and juushichigen (17-stringed horizontal harp) with
Shizu Watanabe, Namie Sano and Takeshi Nakai.
Saeki graduated from the Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (National Tokyo
University of Fine Arts and Music) and the 37th Japanese
Traditional Music School of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Cooperation).
Since moving to Victoria, British Columbia in 1994, Saeki has been
teaching and performing koto music at various educational
institutes and cultural events in North America.
Sample of Koto and Shakuhachi music (755k)
Track Listing of Japanese Traditional Koto and Shakuhachi
Japanese Traditional Instrument Koto
