SHIKI TO UNKAI.

A performance and sound installation

with sound artist and composer, CHATORI SHIMIZU

TWO PERFORMANCES

Saturday 19 September & Sunday 20 September

7.30pm - 9.30pm

Chatori Shimizu is a composer, researcher, multi-instrumentalist and sound artist, whose award-winning works have been performed and exhibited throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe. Ranging from orchestral works to sound installations, Chatori draws upon both Western contemporary composition as well as the aesthetic and philosophy of Japanese court music gagaku, in order to create pieces which comprise of two main elements: sound and the silence between sounds. 

Gagaku, which expresses the functions of the universe according to the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang, provides the conceptual basis to Chatori's compositions which present a balance between meditative repetition and its hysterical demolition. 

For Inner Fields, Chatori Shimizu will be performing the shō, a traditional Japanese meditative instrument which places importance on the "間" (pronounced Ma), which literally means "silent spaces between sounds". The shō instrument is considered to be a part of a player's body since it produces sound according to the player's in and out breath.

Chatori will perform the shō alongside his sound installation 'Somewhere Close', where contact microphones will be attached to different specimens of wood and through adjustments in frequency, the audience will be able to hear "nature singing". The installation will also include paintings by TARO. 

'Somewhere Close' was first exhibited at Pioneer Works in 2014 and it will be the US premiere of Chatori's shō compositions 'Shiki to Unkai III' and 'Shinkaigyo'.

Chatori Shimizu was born in 1990 in Osaka, Japan. He received his BA from Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo, and has studied composition under Motoharu Kawashima, piano under Satoko Inoue and shō under Mayumi Miyata. He has performed extensively as a shō soloist, as well as giving lectures and demonstrations of the instrument and Gagaku music in universities across Japan, the United States, and Europe. He has been working as a coordinator for Columbia University's Gagaku research program this summer and is currently a scholarship student at Columbia's Computer Music Center, pursuing his Masters degree and researching the expressive usages of new technologies in sound arts. www.chatorishimizu.com

There will be two separate performances offered at Inner Fields, one on Saturday and one on Sunday night. 

Each session will begin with a short guided meditation and will include a brief lecture on the history, aesthetics and meditative values of Gagaku sacred music. Space is very limited. To attend this intimate event, please RSVP by purchasing tickets for each performance.

Tickets are by donation. Your contributions will support the artist and the space. 

**BOTH PERFORMANCES SOLD OUT**