{"id":128776,"date":"2019-11-14T09:34:53","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T14:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=128776"},"modified":"2019-11-16T07:35:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-16T12:35:46","slug":"commissions-take-miura-from-prague-to-the-left-coast-from-shakuhachi-to-shamisen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2019\/11\/14\/commissions-take-miura-from-prague-to-the-left-coast-from-shakuhachi-to-shamisen\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical firsts take Miura from Prague to the Left Coast and shakuhachi to shamisen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Composer and Bates music professor Hiroya Miura already had plenty on his plate when a music festival in the Czech Republic made him, as they say, an offer he couldn’t refuse.<\/p>\n

In addition to teaching at Bates and directing the college orchestra, Miura was composing an opera \u2014 his first \u2014 when the International Shakuhachi Festival, in Prague, asked him to write music for a participating ensemble, the BERG Orchestra. But in its particulars, the commission was really asking him to tackle not one, but two more professional firsts.<\/p>\n

The commission was for a concerto, a type of orchestral work in which one instrument (rarely, two or three) plays a virtuosic leading role. And the proposed concerto would feature a traditional Japanese flute called the “shakuhachi.”<\/p>\n

Miura had never written for shakuhachi nor composed a concerto. \u201cI initially was going to turn down the commission,\u201d says Miura, who’s on sabbatical this academic year.<\/p>\n

\"Shown<\/a>

Shown with the BERG Orchestra, Hiroya Miura takes a curtain call after the world premiere of his concerto for shakuhachi in Prague’s Domovina Hall on Sept. 16, 2019. (Karel Suster\/Courtesy of BERG Orchestra)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBut the BERG Orchestra is the only orchestra dedicated to playing contemporary music in the Czech Republic, and is known for adventurous programming and a high quality of music making. I couldn’t say no.\u201d Still, with only six months to write the concerto on top of everything else, \u201cit was a bit like jumping off a cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, it was one big jump that had two happy landings. On Sept. 16, with Miura in attendance, the International Shakuhachi Festival premiered his concerto Galactic Monarchs<\/em>, performed by the BERG Orchestra with shakuhachi master John Kaizan Neptune as soloist. The performance, which won Miura four curtain calls, concluded the five-day festival.<\/p>\n

Then, a few weeks later, in three performances Oct. 5\u20136 in San Francisco, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and guest artists premiered the Bates professor’s Sharaku Unframed<\/em>, a 25-minute, one-act micro-opera featuring Hidejiro Honjoh, an acclaimed innovator on the “shamisen,” a traditional Japanese three-string instrument.<\/p>\n

Video: Hidejiro Honjoh and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble perform \u201cSharaku Unframed\u201d on Oct. 5 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Courtesy of the Left Coast Chamber Orchestra).<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n