Tatsuya Nakatani

December 16, 2021
7:00pm MST
Leon Gallery
$15 General Admission

Proof of vaccination and masks will be required.

In collaboration with Leon Gallery and The Japanese Arts Network, we are excited to present an evening with legendary avant-garde percussionist, Tatsuya Nakatani.

The evening will feature Tatsuya's signature solo set, as well as an improvisation featuring The Playground’s Director Conrad Kehn and spoken word artist Jovan Mays. Following the performance will be an audience talkback facilitated by Japanese Arts Network's Courtney Ozaki.

Tatsuya Nakatani is an avant-garde percussionist, composer, and artist of sound. Active internationally since the 1990s; Nakatani has released over 80 recordings and tours extensively, performing over 150 concerts a year. His primary focus is his solo work and his large ensemble project, the Nakatani Gong Orchestra. With his activity in the new music, improvisation and experimental music scenes, Nakatani has a long history of collaboration. He teaches master classes and lectures at universities and music conservatories around the world. Originally from Japan, he makes his home in the desert town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Nakatani creates his distinctive music centered around his adapted bowed gong, supported by an array of drums, cymbals, and singing bowls. In consort with his hand-carved Kobo Bows, it is an instrument he has spent decades developing. Nakatani approaches his orchestral project (NGO) as an arrangement of formations of vibrations, incorporated in shimmering layers of silence and texture. Within this contemporary work, one can still recognize the dramatic pacing, formal elegance and space (ma) felt in traditional Japanese music.