Teruhisa Fukuda Born in 1949, Teruhisa Fukuda is an eminent artist who has explored a vast range of musical techniques from, both, traditional and contemporary music. This is how Teruhisa Fukuda speaks about his trajectory: ‘I started playing the shakuhachi at the age of twenty while studying economics at university. I have now played this instrument for 48 years. I come from a family of music lovers. My three sisters and I learnt to play the piano when we were children. Piano music and song were omnipresent in our home. The art and spirit of traditional Japanese music are passed on within the family circle. I did not have the good fortune to grow up in a family that took it to heart to protect and preserve this knowledge, something that I consider to be more important than mastering an instrument. My father was a teacher. He undertook a classic university career. He loved music very much and played the clarinet and the violin. I have kept his violin which is still at home. In my childhood, conservatories in Japan taught Western music, with the result that by the end of my teenage years I knew nothing about the traditional music of my country. Although I have always been attracted by wind instruments, when I heard the shakuhachi on the radio I found it sounded awful. It was at university that I attended for the first time a live performance of someone playing the shakuhachi. I was captivated: how was it possible to produce these sounds on such a simple instrument? I started to learn the shakuhachi as a disciple of Baizan Nakamura who taught me the repertoire of the Tozan school (founded by Nakao Tozan born during the Meiji era). Departing from the honkyoku repertoire dating back to the Edo period, this school set out to create music influenced by a Western aesthetic. As a disciple of Kohachiro Miyata, I then acquired the honkyoku repertoire of the Kinko school and the traditional playing technique of the shakuhachi. After obtaining my university degree I began my career as a professional musician. I started out as a member of a traditional music ensemble. When I was about 36, I started to perform as a soloist with several composers trained in Western music, who sought to work with me to create a new form of shakuhachi music. They created many pieces for the shakuhachi?: played solo, to the accompaniment of an orchestra, incorporated into concert bands or chamber music, into ensembles bringing together other traditional Japanese instruments, and so forth. In 2002 I met the renowned composer and musicologist Akira Tamba who lives in Paris, and I have learnt much from him. In 2002, Akira Tamba, Shiho Kineya and myself founded the ensemble Hijirikai whose philosophy is to promote tradition and its renewal.’

Teruhisa Fukuda