| James Nyoraku Schlefer | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | James Schlefer |
| Born | August 31, 1956 |
| Genres | World music |
| Occupations | Musician, Composer |
| Instruments | shakuhachi, flute |
| Website | http://www.nyoraku.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| shakuhachi, flute | |
James Nyoraku Schlefer (Japanese: ジェイムス 如楽 シュレファー), born 1956 in Brooklyn, New York, is a performer and teacher and composer of shakuhachi in New York City. He received the Dai-Shi-Han (Grand Master) certificate in 2001, one of only a handful of non-Japanese to receive this high-level award. In 2008, he received his second Shi-Han certificate from Mujuan Dojo, in Kyoto. In Japan, Schlefer has worked with Reibo Aoki, Katsuya Yokoyama, Yoshio Kurahashi, Yoshinobu Taniguchi, and Kifu Mitsuhashi. His first teacher was Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin. He holds a Master’s degree in Western flute and musicology from Queens College and currently teaches music history courses at the City University of New York.[1]
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Schlefer was introduced to the shakuhachi in 1979, while working towards his Master’s degree in musicology. He attended a sankyoku ensemble of shakuhachi, koto and shamisen, and following the recital he was offered the chance to play the shakuhachi, and although he was a working professional silver flute player he was unable to produce a tone on the shakuhachi, spurring his interest and eventual devotion to the instrument.
Nyoraku Sensei is a Grand Master of the Jin Nyodo lineage, having learned from Kurahashi Yoshio, Mitsuhashi Kifu, Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin,[2] and Keisuke Zenyoji, all of whose teachers learned from Jin Nyodo. Jin Sensei’s honkyoku repertoire draws from several traditional lines; Kinko ryu, Kinpu ryu, and Fuke Meian. In turn, Schlefer has taught and licenced several students, including Brian Tairaku Ritchie.
Schlefer is a member of the Japanese music group Ensemble East, which performs traditional and modern music for Japanese instruments, including the shamisen and the koto. An educator as well as performer, his appearances include lectures about the origin, history, and development of Japanese music. Schlefer has been a soloist in several orchestral settings including the New York City Opera, Karl Jenkins’ Requiem, and others. He has performed and lectured at Duke University[3] (in two, week-long artist residencies), and at the Juilliard School, Manhattan and Eastman Schools of Music, Vassar, Haverford, Brown, Union, Moravian, Colby, Colby-Sawyer, Williams and Hunter Colleges, and at music festivals in the U.S., South America, Asia and Europe.
James Nyoraku Schlefer holds advanced degrees, and has years of performing experience, in two musical traditions. His original compositions bring these worlds together. Of particular interest to Schlefer is combining Japanese and Western instruments in new compositions that explore two sound worlds in a way that is exciting but not derivative, beautiful yet deeply respectful of both classic traditions.
As a composer, Schlefer has received numerous commissions and grants, including from Dancing in the Streets (with the support of the Mary Flagler Cary Trust Live Music for Dance Program), SONOS Chamber Orchestra, the Satori Chamber Ensemble, and PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER (with the support of the O’Donnell Green Foundation and the AMC Live Music for Dance Program).
In 2008, Schlefer founded Kyo-Shin-An Arts, a not-for-profit arts organization “dedicated to the appreciation and integration of Japanese musical instruments in Western classical music.” Kyo-Shin-An Arts commissions and produces new works and concerts that highlight the outstanding virtuosity of the koto, shakuhachi and shamisen.
Schlefer is founder and head of the Kyo-Shin-An teaching studio in New York City. He has published books of traditional notation and written two etude books for shakuhachi technical development. he holds two Shi-Han (Master) certificates, and one Dai-Shi-Han (Grand Master) certificate, and is well respected as a teacher in both the U.S. and Japan. He has been passing on shakuhachi tradition for nearly twenty years and devotes many hours each week to teaching.[4]
Nyoraku Sensei’s dojo is in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Students learn in the Japanese style, facing the teacher and first singing then playing the music together. Historically, traditional music was taught entirely by rote, with the student copying everything the teacher played by ear. At Kyo-Shin-An, the spirit of this method is maintained but with contemporary modifications, such as using notation, and with comments and suggestions to improve playing.
In the course of study, students learn to play 41 pieces of honkyoku (Zen Buddhist traditional music), 45 sankyoku pieces (chamber music played with koto and shamisen), and numerous folk songs. Upon completing this curriculum, a licensing course (which involves playing the music upside down and “teaching” it to the teacher), and a public performance, students will earn a Jun-Shi-Han Associate certificate and receive a Japanese name.