Programme

Toru Takemitsu – Rain Tree Sketch 1 (1982)

Satoshi Tanaka – Oracle (2011)

Akemi Naito – UBAZAKURA (2017) ~world premiere

Yuji Itoh – The Reconciliation (2017) ~world premiere

John McLachlan – Fragment (after Lafcadio Hearn) (2016)

Paul Hayes – The Second Heaven of Desire in Old Tramore (2017)

Tickets €10 (€5 conc) will be available at venue

The focus of this concert is the link between Ireland and Japan: Lafcadio Hearn. We see Hearn as an Irish writer, though he was an international figure of Irish and Greek parentage, who took Japanese nationality in the latter part of his life. He spent his formative childhood years in Ireland, including long spells in Tramore. He is known in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo, where he is remembered for his extensive writings on Japanese folk tales and beliefs. In this programme the four final pieces are brand new works all with spoken texts and piano, with folk tales by Hearn. He is remembered in the Lafcadio Hearn Gardens, Tramore.

Pianist Satoko Inoue is renowned throughout Japan, Europe and in United States as a leading interpreter of contemporary solo piano music. She has premiered works by some of Japan’s foremost composers including Jo Kondo, Yori-aki Matsudaira, Yoritsune Matsudaira, and Toshi Ichiyanagi. Especially she is well-known for playing Jo Kondo’s complete piano works. She is also known for performing works of other contemporary composers such as Toru Takemitsu, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Henry Cowell, Luciano Berio, Giacinto Scelsi, Luc Ferrari, Doina Rotaru, and others.

Besides performing in Japan, Satoko Inoue has performed in major European festivals including Darmstadt, the International Experimental Music Festival in Bourges, and had solo recitals, for example, MERIDIAN, Zilele SNR-SIMC (ISCM) in Bucharest, Mersin International Music Festival, Festival” l’Art pour l’Aar” in Bern, Ciclo de Conciertos de Música Contemporánea in Buenos Aires. In addition, she has featured in solo concerts in the US, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, Romania, Egypt, and Argentina. She has recorded three solo CDs on HatHut Records (Switzerland) and has further CDs on the labels Edition Hundertmark (Germany), Emec Discos (Spain), and ALM Records (Japan).

Satoko’s tour is part of the official project of “60th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and Ireland.” She appears in association with “nothing but music” (Japan) and extends thanks to Waterford Music.