Call for Contributions by Members and Participants
We invite all ESS members and other participants of the event to share their knowledge and experiences with our fellow shakuhachi players.
Please find the details here.

Following on from the two very successful ESS NowHere online shakuhachi events and the postponement yet again of our Summer School in Dublin until hopefully 2022 due to the current pandemic, the ESS is very keen to try to explore ways in which we can reach out to each other and to experiment in how the shakuhachi community in Europe remain connected. Consequently, we have drawn up a very different kind of Summer School this year, both in terms of structure and content, to try to go beyond the confines of our present restrictions and forge new bonds and hopefully inspirations.

Based on feedback from the NowHere events, this years’ Summer School will partly focus on learning new pieces from many different styles, at both Elementary and Intermediate/Advanced levels, but will also present a new range of activities to broaden our understanding including 4 sessions on Composing for Shakuhachi, 4 sessions on Making and Repair and 8 sessions on Explorations in Shakuhachi which will include films, videos, talks and contributions from members to share their own ideas about practice, learning and performance. We are also planning Socialising sessions using new technology in which we can all get together as if we were at a live party. Each day will end with a concert featuring all the pieces which will be taught by the teachers together with other invited guests, and participants will also have the chance to perform in these concerts themselves too.    

Registration is open for either one of both weekends and for those who do not feel able to join in the learning of the pieces, it is possible to register just for the non-teaching sessions and the concerts.

Scores, recordings and fingering charts will be available for download after 1 July. You will receive an email with the link.

Organisers: Horacio Curti, Michael Soumei Coxall, Christophe Kazan Gaston, Markus Guhe, Nina Haarer, Jean-Francois Lagrost, Kiku Day, Thorsten Knaub, Emmanuelle Rouaud, Jim Franklin, Jose Vargas.