Junko Ueda
'Classical Japanese music'

Studio 1

Showtimes: 14 May 2009 - 20:15

The big names of Japanese film and literature may be familiar to many of us, but we rarely hear about traditional Japanese music. May 14 and 15 will be a chance to make up for this omission, with the great Japanese singer Junko Ueda demonstrating her mastery of epic songs and Buddhist Shômyô chants. Alone on stage, in a pared-down performance, she will play the satsuma-biwa, a pear-shaped luth that has made its way through Japanese history, and was recently revived by Junko Ueda’s teacher Kinshi Tsuruta.

The alchemy between singer and instrument is breath-taking, combinging the meditative mood of Buddhist chants, the urgent recitative that takes the listener through 1,200 years of Japanese history and the biwa’s electrifying sounds.

Junko Ueda – Satsuma-Biwa, voice

Prod. Flagey