Yume Japanese Gardens holds its first-ever concert March 8 when it welcomes master bamboo flute player Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos for an evening performance of haunting traditional shakuhachi music.

Ramos was born in Japan to Filipino parents, lives in British Columbia, Canada and is one of the foremost teachers and performers of shakuhachi in North America. He studied shakuhachi in Japan under several noted teachers and is the first Canadian and one of the very few non-Japanese to have obtained the esteemed status of Dai Shihan (“Grand Master”), in 2008. He has taught and performed in North America, Europe, and Japan.

Admission is $15 for members of Yume of Japanese Gardens and $17 for non-members. Seating is very limited, and tickets must be purchased in advance. For tickets, please call the Gardens at 520.445.2957 and have your credit card number ready .

More about Alcvin Ramos:

Alcvin is one of the foremost teachers and performers, and recording artists of shakuhachi in North America. He was the first non-Japanese to win a prize (runner-up) in the all-Japan Shakuhachi competition. In 2001, he received his shihan license from one of the greatest shakuhachi masters in history, Katsuya Yokoyama (founder of the International Shakuhachi Training Centre and brainchild of the World Shakuhachi Festivals) via one of his most exceptional students, Kaoru Kakizakai. While studying jiari playing Alcvin, also studied jinashi shakuhachi playing intensively with Atsuya Okuda of the Zensabo.

In November of 2008, Alcvin received an honourary Dai Shihan license along with a new name, “Ryuzen” (Dragon Meditation) from another one of Japan’s greatest players and teachers, Yoshinobu Taniguchi. Alcvin is the first Canadian and first one of Filipino descent, and one of only a handful of non-Japanese, to receive this esteemed honour. Alcvin has also studied shakuhachi construction techniques with Shugetsu Yamaguchi, Murai Eigoro, Kinya Sogawa, and John Kaizan Neptune. After decades of studying and playing, Alcvin has created a unique playing style, which effortlessly flows between the worlds of music and meditation.

He has taught and performed all over North America, Europe, and Japan and pursues an active solo as well as collaborative career and has shared the stage with many distinguished artists such as John McLaughlin, Bill Laswell, Toshinori Kondo, Hun Huur Tuu Mongolian Throat Singers, Kazutoki Umezu, Celso Machado, Giorgio Magnanensi, Joseph “Pepe” Danza, Uzume Taiko, Ma Jie, Mariano Gonzales, Danny Kalanduyan and has opened for Anoushka Shankar and the Yoshida Brothers. Recent bands he has played in: Dharmakasa, Isshin Denshin, Densabi, Maru, Grooved Whale Project, Haagen, and is presently leading Kazemon and the Samaya Ensemble. A composer and multi-instrumentalist, Ramos explores playing with different musical traditions from around the world as well as new ways of playing traditional instruments and combining them with synthesized and electronic music.

Alcvin lives in Canada, where he is the director of the Bamboo-In, a shakuhachi retreat centre on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia focused on meditation and the comprehensive study of the shakuhachi flute.

In his spare time Alcvin enjoys meditation, instrument building, composing, recording, hiking, ethnomusicology, calligraphy, and studying traditional Japanese arts.

Website: www.alcvin.ca
Sample of Alcvin’s music:

http://www.myspace.com/alcvinryuzenramos

YouTube:

For tickets to this concert at the newly opened Yume Japanese Gardens, 2130 N. Alvernon Way, call 520-445-2957, which is open every day except some holidays, and the hot summer months of June through September. My photos from the January 2013 grand opening of that Japanese garden in Tucson (click here).

Ramos will also be conducting private flute lessons at Yume Japanese Gardens the same day, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Contact Richard Conway at 520-405-5665 to sign up, $80 for two hours, $50 one hour. All levels, flutes will be provided.

Happy Girls’ Day today (March 3) in the Japanese culture, a day when we honor all the girls/women in our lives, with doll displays and favorite foods.

The Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition (SAJCC) is established to unify the greater Japanese community in Tucson and Southern Arizona. The SAJCC shall be an organization for Japanese American families and individuals, Japanese Nationals and their families, people and organizations promoting the Japanese language, arts, and cultural activities, and anyone interested in Japanese culture. The SAJCC is meant to be inclusive.

As part of the SAJCC, we have launched a website, www.southernazjapan.org, highlighting the January 2013 grand opening of the Yume Japanese Gardens at 2130 N. Alvernon Way, where our group has been meeting. We hope to be able to sponsor events at that beautiful garden created by Executive director/founder Patricia Deridder, who lived in Japan for 15 years.

The website has a directory of Japanese cultural and educational groups as a resource, a calendar of ongoing activities and flyers of upcoming events, information about Japanese culture in Southern Arizona, such as the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site on the road up to Mt. Lemmon.

I’ve posted a few of my previous articles from the www.Tucsoncitizen.com/community on this website, as I’ve been covering Japanese cultural issues for over three years now, such as the annual speech contest in April, dance & taiko performances, the monthly origami club meetings, koi association tour events. I also teach hanafuda (flower card game) at the Tucson Japanese Culture & Origami Meetup group on the 1st Saturday of the month (or when I able to attend).

Upcoming: Shakuhachi (bamboo flute) concert at the Yume Japanese Gardens on March 8, and the 11th Annual Japanese Speech Contest on April 20 at Pima Community College West campus. The latter will have booths/exhibitions from the various aspects of Japanese culture: go board game, origami, koi, temari balls, food, martial arts, kyudo (archery), calligraphy, ikebana, taiko drumming, etc. I look forward to eating arare snack crackers every year at this speech contest, and listening to the talented young people speak Japanese.

Please check out our SAJCC website and please let us know of any events or topics of interest to the Japanese community, such as movies, art shows, cultural events.

See the flyers & program schedule below. FREE admission, 9 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, 9 to 3 p.m. on Sunday. This is their 31st annual show sponsored by the Southern Arizona Koi Association (SAKA).

For more info: www.sakoia.org, 520-747-7278. I wrote about a previous koi parade of ponds tour in the Spring (click here).

Taste of Asia flyer

Come to the Inaugural Taste of Asia (a taste of food, music, cultural performances & exhibits) all at one site, the beautiful Tucson Chinese Cultural Center (1288 W. River Rd.) on two days, Friday April 30 and Saturday, May 1st.

This cultural event runs 4 to 9 p.m. on Friday, 11 to 9 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $3 (children under 12 free). Food and beverage tickets will be sold separately.

Food vendors will be offering delicacies from the countries of Thailand, Laos, Korea, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, India, Kazakhstan, and China, and there will also be Filipino and Japanese food for sale at the Marketplace. The performers will be diverse as well: Tucson Chinese Association Lion Dance Team, martial arts dojos, tai chi, Leiola Hula Halau, Fine Stream Gamelan, Arirang Korean Dancers, Odaiko Sonora, Tucson Sino Choir, and many more.

I am especially looking forward to hearing a Japanese traditional musical duo “Muso” on Saturday at high noon, performing shakuhachi flute (by Paul Amiel) and koto (by master teacher Hiroko Coates).

Being Japanese American from Hawaii, I will be looking for my cultural foods and music, but also expanding my knowledge about all the other Asian/Pacific Islander cultures as well. This is similar to smaller Asian/Pacific Islander heritage events which have been held in Tucson, but this is the first annual Taste of Asia.

For further info, call 520-292-6900 or log onto www.tucsontasteofasia.com or www.tucsonchinese.org. The Tucson Chinese Cultural Center is on the north side of River Rd., just east of La Canada.

Everyone is welcome to taste a Taste of Asia 2010.