British composers Ben Nobuto and Hollie Harding, recently returned from a residency in Japan, join Daryl Jamieson, a multi-award-winning composer and Noh expert, to discuss the influence of Noh on future generations of composers, followed by a screening of two pieces by Jamieson.

Over the past year, they studied Noh in depth with the eminent shoulder drum player Tatsushi Narita and Daryl Jamieson, a multi-award-winning composer and Noh expert, through their residency in Japan and online tutorials. Noh Reimagined commissioned them to write new pieces inspired by Noh in collaboration with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, who will premiere their pieces on 23rd June in Birmingham.

In conversation with composer Daryl Jamieson, they will discuss the influence of Noh on future generations of composers, followed by a screening of Descant 2 and 4 by Jamieson – from of a series of pieces he wrote for solo instruments in natural environments.

These two video works, Descants 2: and the trees and Descants 4, both share with nō the structural idea that a visitor –  a treble, sung by Yuta, in Descants 2 and a violist, performed by Tomoko Akasaka, in Descants 4 – arrives at a place and, through the power of music and movement (human culture), communicates with the living spirits of the land, represented in these works by sounds and images of the non-human.

This event is presented thanks to the support of The Hinrichsen Foundation.

This event will last 90 minutes without an interval.

About Noh Reimagined  

Curated and produced by Akiko Yanagisawa (Mu Arts) in partnership with Kings Place, Noh Reimagined festival unwraps the art of Noh, the iconic theatrical tradition that originated in fourteenth-century Japan.

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