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An Evening of Works by Ichiyanagi, Kosugi, Ono, and Shiomi


Friday, April 27, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Harold M. Williams Auditorium, The Getty Center

This program includes performances of Yoko Ono's ONOCHORD; Ichiyanagi Toshi's Appearance, Music for Electric Metronome, Duet for Piano and String Instrument, and Sapporo; Shiomi Mieko's Wind Music for Harp; and a special solo appearance by Kosugi Takehisa performing his own works.

Ichiyanagi Toshi, Appearance (1967)



Jessica Catron, cello
Jeremy Drake, oscillator 2
Tucker Dulin, trombone
Traci Esslinger, organ
Chris Heenan, oscillator 1
David Rothbaum, ring modulator

Ichiyanagi Toshi, Music for Electric Metronome (1960)



Ellen Burr, flute, metronome
Jessica Catron, cello, metronome
Rhodri Davies, harp, metronome
Jeremy Drake, guitar, metronome
Tucker Dulin, trombone, metronome
Traci Esslinger, piano, metronome
Chris Heenan, saxophone, metronome
Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon, metronome
Rich West, percussion, metronome

Ichiyanagi Toshi, Duet for Piano and String Instrument (1961)



Jessica Catron, cello
Traci Esslinger, piano

Ichiyanagi Toshi, Sapporo (1962)



Ellen Burr, flute, conductor
Jessica Catron, cello
Rhodri Davies, harp
Jeremy Drake, guitar
Tucker Dulin, trombone
Traci Esslinger, piano
Chris Heenan, contrabass clarinet, conductor
Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon
Rich West, percussion

Shiomi Mieko, Wind Music for Harp (2006)
Rhodri Davies, harp, electronics

Yoko Ono, Onochord (2004/2005)
With audience participation

Intermission
ONOCHORD (Documentary) (2004/2005) on view in the lobby.

Kosugi Takehisa, Organic Music (1963)



Kosugi Takehisa, various tubes, pipes

Kosugi Takehisa, Cycles II (1981/2007)



Kosugi Takehisa, audio generators, delay/pitch-shifters

Kosugi Takehisa, Op. Music (2003)



Kosugi Takehisa, audio generators, pitch-shifters, sound-to-light controller, electric bulbs

Kosugi Takehisa, Micro 1 (1961)



Kosugi Takehisa, paper, microphone


About the Composers

Ichiyanagi Toshi
Born 1933 in Kobe; lives and works in Tokyo. Associated with Fluxus

Ichiyanagi studied composition with Hirao Kishio and John Cage, and he attended the Juilliard School and the New School for Social Research in New York City from 1954 to 1960. He returned to Japan in 1961 to participate in a performance at the Sōgetsu Art Center in Tokyo, an important venue for avant-garde music and film. In 1963 Ichiyanagi organized the group New Direction (Nyū Direkushon) with fellow avant-garde composers such as Kosugi Takehisa, Takahashi Yūji, Kobayashi Kenji, and the poet and music critic Akiyama Kuniharu. One of the leading composers in Japan, Ichiyanagi has worked in a range of genres, creating operas and orchestral and chamber works that often incorporate "chance music" and nontraditional scoring, as well as compositions using traditional Japanese ensembles and instruments. Among his major large-scale works are the violin concerto Circulating Scenery (1983), Piano Concerto No. 2 "Winter Portrait" (1987), and the opera Momo (1995).

Kosugi Takehisa
Born 1938 in Tokyo; lives and works in Nara and New York. Member of Group Ongaku and Fluxus

Kosugi creates mixed-media sound performances and installations, making use of everyday materials and electronic technology. In 1962 he graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music with a degree in musicology. Beginning in 1958, Kosugi and Mizuno Shūkō presented impromptu sound; two years later, with Shiomi Mieko (Chieko) and Yasunao Tone, he helped form Group Ongaku, an ensemble whose antimusical Dadaistic events challenged conventional modes of artistic expression. Kosugi's pieces were performed at Fluxus-related events in the early 1960s, garnering worldwide recognition. In 1969 he cofounded the collective Taj Mahal Travellers, which improvised performance works in various settings until 1976. For the Japan World Exposition '70 in Osaka, Kosugi installed commissioned environmental sound events at the Festival Plaza. He has been a resident composer and performer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company since 1977.

Yoko Ono
Born 1933 in Tokyo; lives and works in New York City. Member of Fluxus

Ono is a conceptual artist whose works span a wide creative range: musical pieces, three-dimensional objects, paintings, performance events, instructions, and installations. She was one of the foremost Fluxus artists. During childhood Ono was trained in classical music; however, by the mid-1950s her interests turned to experimental music. From December 1960 to June 1961, Ono, together with fellow Fluxus artist La Monte Young, hosted and performed in a now-legendary series of avant-garde concerts and events at her loft on Chambers Street in New York City. This led to a deeper involvement with Fluxus activities, including her 1961 solo exhibition in New York City at AG Gallery, which was run by George Maciunas. Ono's first husband, the composer Ichiyanagi Toshi, moved to Tokyo in 1961. The following year, Ono also returned to Tokyo, where her activities through 1964 were marked by an outburst of conceptually oriented creativity and collaborations with the emerging vanguard of Japanese artists. Some of her works were presented at the Sōgetsu Art Center, where she also appeared in performances of avant-garde pieces. After her move back to New York in 1964, Ono's oeuvre continued to evolve. The foundation of her artistic practice can be found in the book Grapefruit (1964), in which she compiled instructions on painting, objects, music, poetry, and events.

Shiomi Mieko (Chieko)
Born 1938 in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture; lives and works in Minoo, Osaka Prefecture. Member of Group Ongaku and Fluxus

Shiomi is a composer, poet, artist, and leading contributor to the Fluxus movement. While at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, she was a founding member of the improvisational music performance unit Group Ongaku. In 1964 Shiomi moved to New York City after being introduced to Fluxus by artist Nam June Paik. After returning to Japan in 1965, she began a mail-art project titled Spatial Poem, which was designed to allow worldwide collaborations with artists and Fluxus colleagues while she remained in Japan. The project was ultimately comprised nine events that were executed between 1965 and 1975. In 1969 she participated in Cross Talk: Intermedia, a three-day program of cross-genre and collaborative performances. Since then Shiomi has developed a number of works that incorporate optical and sonic sensations, including Bird Dictionary for Soprano and Piano (1978) and If We Were a Pentagonal Memory Device (1979). Her album Fluxus Suite: A Musical Dictionary of 80 People around Fluxus (2002) marked the fortieth anniversary of the movement. In 2005 she published Furukusasu toha nanika: Nichijō to āto o musubitsuketa hitobito (What is Fluxus: People connecting the everyday and art).