Japanese music masters Také to Ito perform at Odd Fellows

||| FROM BETHANY MARIE for ORCAS ISLAND ODD FELLOWS |||

The sounds of traditional and contemporary Japanese music come to Orcas Island when Také to Ito, featuring koto master Curtis Patterson and shakuhachi master Bruce Huebner, perform at Odd Fellows Hall at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 8.

Také to Ito – a name evoking také (bamboo) and ito (string), brings together two musicians who have devoted much of their lives to the study and performance of Japanese music. Their music draws on the traditions of the bamboo shakuhachi flute and the 13-string koto while incorporating original compositions, improvisation and contemporary influences.

Curtis Patterson, a native of Illinois, began studying koto in 1980 and later moved to Japan, where he studied with renowned koto musicians including Tadao and Kazue Sawai. He holds a shihan master teaching license from the Sawai Koto Institute and became the first non-Japanese national to graduate from NHK’s training program for performers of traditional Japanese instruments.

Bruce Huebner, a California native now based in Japan, has spent more than four decades studying and performing the shakuhachi. He studied at Tokyo University of the Arts under legendary shakuhachi master and Living National Treasure Goro Yamaguchi, becoming the first non-Japanese musician to graduate from the university’s traditional Japanese music program. Huebner later earned a traditional master teaching license and has performed internationally in settings ranging from classical Japanese music to jazz and world music, including appearances at the Toronto Jazz Festival and New York’s Blue Note.

Patterson and Huebner have collaborated for many years, performing music that ranges from Japanese classical repertoire to original compositions and improvisation. Their work is deeply influenced by the natural world and by the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in simplicity, imperfection and transience. The duo’s fall tour invites audiences to explore the contrasting yet complementary sounds of bamboo and strings through music shaped by decades of study and life in Japan.

Tickets are available at: https://events.humanitix.com/take-to-ito-at-odd-fellows-hall-orcas-island/tickets, or on the Odd Fellows website: www.OddsHall.org.