Kai Suzuki. Ayako Nakura, Shigeko Suzuki - Dreams on Reed Organ - Japan CD

Credits:

Kai Suzuki. Ayako Nakura, Shigeko Suzuki

Description:

The reed organ - familiar to generations of Japanese as "the pedal organ that stood in the school hall". Brought to Japan with the westernising reforms of the Meiji era, it has become for many a kind of spiritual home, and here it is heard on two contrasting instruments: one by the once-mighty American firm of Estey, the other a fine Japanese-built example. Kai Suzuki, one of the few professional reed organists, shapes his phrasing as naturally as breathing and reveals the instrument's little-known true character. A jewel of an album that also includes pieces performed with the vocalist Shigeko Suzuki, among them Furusato, Amazing Grace and Silent Night. - Kai Suzuki (reed organ) After graduating in tuba from the Faculty of Music of Kyoto City University of Arts in 1999, he studied at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich and graduated from the University of Augsburg's music faculty. From April 2002 he spent about a year and a half under contract as tuba player at the municipal opera house in Füssen, Bavaria. While studying abroad he took pipe organ lessons with Stefan Moser, organist of the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Munich. After returning to Japan he completed the seventh LIC Habikino organ course. He has appeared at the concert marking the tenth anniversary of the Japan Reed Organ Society and at the concert for the centenary of the founding of the city of Hamamatsu. He is a member of the Japan Reed Organ Society and organist of Yoshida Church of the Church of Christ in Japan. - Shigeko Suzuki (vocals) A singer who weaves the resonance of life itself. Born in Hamamatsu, her first encounter with the singing voice was the lullabies she heard in her mother's arms. She grew up with piano and voice, and at Hamamatsu Kita High School played bass in the light music club while throwing herself into choir and band work. As a student at the University of Tokyo she studied bossa nova and jazz singing. After graduating she pursued the bar examination while continuing to sing, then chose the life of a vocalist, resolving "to do what I truly love with the limited life I have". She made her major-label debut in 1995, and was the first Japanese vocalist to give a live performance at the Blue Note in New York. Her most recent album, the eleventh, with you (Sony Music), is a duo with pianist Yoshiko Kishino. In 2012 she released the spoken-word CD Akari. She is the founder of Breath for Peace, a project collecting songs of peace, and has visited the conflict-affected Republic of Uganda; her work extends across schools, hospitals and other fields. In 2011 she received the Hamamatsu City Education and Culture Encouragement Award as an "artist connected with Hamamatsu", and she serves as a Hamamatsu "Yaramaika" ambassador. Kojima Recordings