Almost unbelievably the last time where we all could meet face to face to play and learn shakuhachi together was in 2019 in Lisbon. Although we had a continous virtual gatherings through our Zoom programme, we still missed sharing the same location and all that social mingling these ESS events bring along with them.

Now thanks to Philip Horan and his team in Ireland, who, after the 2020 Covid induced cancellation and the huge disappointment to be stopped in mid-organisation, still managed to put together a fantastic programme for this year’s summer school at an amazing location:

Dates: Thursday 20 July to Sunday 23 July 2023
Venue: Irish Institute of Music and Song, Balbriggan, County Dublin
Information & registration: dublin2023.shakuhachisociety.eu

The third and final ‘Road to Dublin’ online will take place on 4th and 5th March. Again a wide range of styles will be represented as well as workshops for different levels of proficiency.

If you are also planning to attend the ESS Summer School in Dublin this year (20–23 July), there is a special offer for ESS members to book a combined ticket for Road to Dublin 3 and the Dublin Summer School. Please see the registration page for more details.

Teachers: Seian Genshin, Marco Lienhard, Adrian Freedman and Yoshimi Tsujimoto

Dates: 4, 5 March 2023

Fees: ESS members: €40, Non-members: €50

Web: http://roadtodublin.shakuhachisociety.eu

Registration: roadtodublin.shakuhachisociety.eu/registration-3

The Road to Dublin Online Event 3 presents shakuhachi music from the legendary roots right up to the very present. Our weekend starts with Seian Genshin, the 42nd head of the Myōanji Temple/Fuke Myōan Shakuhachi sharing with us Chōshi and Kokū and through this his approach to ‘suizen’ and seeing shakuhachi as a tool of Zen Buddhism. The meditative Fuke Myōan sounds will be contrasted by Marco Lienhard’s interpretation and teaching of the virtuous expressive piece Makiri a modern composition by Marco’s teacher, the late Yokoyama Katsuya. Tsujimoto Yoshimi one of the young new generation of woman shakuhachi masters in Japan, equally at home in the Kinko tradition as well as in the contemporary ‘shakuhachi-pop’ scene, introduces us to her take on Tamuke and arrangements of popular tunes Takeda no Komori Uta and Summer. We will close the workshop by arriving at Adrian Freedman’s 2015 composition Yugure, where the calming rhythm of breath and sound brings us back again to the roots and right into the present – there-by closing the circle of our week-end excursion.