Lecture and Concert with Gagaku master musician Ōta Yutaka on January 24-25.

Maestro Ōta Yutaka is one of the leading and most active performers of Gagaku in Japan today. He began learning the ryūteki flute with Maestro Anzai Shōgo, former director of the Gagaku orchestra at Tokyo Imperial Palace. He then studied Japanese music at Tokyo University of the Art, specializing in Gagaku (flute, biwa, and Gagaku dances and vocal repertory). He also plays the saxophone. He is also active as a composer for theater and TV, and as a jazz musician. He has performed, with various formations, in Japan, Europe, South Korea, and California (including here at UCSB).

Ōta Yutaka Lecture
Recreating a Lost Performing Art: Gendai Sangaku

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Social Sciences and Media Studies (SSMS) Building, Conference Room 2135

Sangaku is a sort of acrobatic, circus-like performing art that arrived in Japan from the Asian continent, probably originating in India, and disappeared around the ninth century. Ōta Yutaka has tried to revive it in contemporary form with his ensemble Gendai Sangaku (“Contemporary Sangaku”). Its first important event was a performance offering at the Great Buddha Hall in Tōdaiji, Nara, in 2019. The ensemble represents the origins and the features of original Sangaku in multiple ways: it employs various musical instruments from different cultures and ages (the Japanese flute, the shō mouthorgan, the Japanese large drum, Turkish string instruments, even the saxophone), it displays acrobatic juggling, and it makes effective use of storytelling. Ōta will present a history of this genre and discuss his attempts to revive it today and his motivations.

Organized by Fabio Rambelli. Supported by UCSB’s Department of Religious Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, Department of Music, and Department of Theater and Dance, with support from the UCSB Shinto Studies Endowment, the Uberoi Foundation, and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global.

Ōta Yutaka
Performance-Demonstration
The World of Gagaku: Instruments, Songs, and Dances

After a brief outline of Gagaku ceremonial music and dance, maestro Ōta will play musical instruments (flutes and biwa), songs (saibara and rōei), and perform an example of Bugaku dance. It is a unique way to experience the variety of this ancient art form, recognized by UNESCO as part of the cultural heritage of humankind as the oldest continuously performed orchestral music and dance.

Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Theater Studio (next to Hatlen Theater)