World Shakuhachi Discussion / Go to Live Shakuhachi Chat
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Hello Shakuhachi Forum! Forgive my late introduction. I'm amazed at how much this forum has grown in such a short time! Thanks so much to Brian Tairaku and Ken Lacosse for making the effort creating this!
Anyways, my name is Alcvin Takegawa Ramos. I teach up in BC, Canada. I've been playing for 15 years (teaching for 8). I started learning Tozan then switched to Kinko after two years. Then eventually settled into the tradition of Katsuya Yokoyama and Watazumi Doso. I consider this my base, but I am very open to learning other styles! (I also studied the jinashi shakuhchi style of Atsuya Okuda for 2 years in Tokyo.) I continue to return to Japan every year to study shakuhachi with my teachers (harvest bamboo and pilgrimage to sacred sites!)
I moved to Vancouver in 1996 and in 2001 founded the Shakuhachi Society of British Columbia, and the Bamboo-In Shakuhachi Retreat Centre, on the Sunshine Coast. I enjoy all aspects of shakuhachi immensely: music, teaching, making, spirituality, history, philosophy, culture, bamboo horticulture, people.....It is such a deep and fascinating world to devote one's life to; it will take many lifetimes to discover it all. But this list is helping with the process!
I make my living as a shakuhachi teacher and performer. Although my specialty is koten honkyoku, I also play sankyoku (with shamisen and koto), gaikyoku, minyou. In addition to shakuhachi I play the biwa, Japanese lute having studied with Yukio Tanaka in Tokyo since 2000. I also have a strong interest in gagaku, but unfortunately there are no gagaku groups here in BC. The most I have is a hichiriki which I play solo. I hope to bring gagaku someday to BC.
I also love free improvisation and new music with shakuhachi, and atmospheric ambient electronic music, eg. Steve Roach, Robert Rich, etc.
I look forward to learning from this forum. Everyone is a teacher here.
Very best regards,
Alcvin
www.bamboo-in.com
P.s. Hi Darren! Nice to see you here.
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Hello Alcvin,
Welcome to the forum, it's nice to have you here. I like your website! The Bamboo-In looks like a wonderful place to visit and play Shakuhachi, and your yearly trips to Japan look like a great time too. Who knows, maybe someday I will be able to be there.
I am not a formal student of the Shakuhachi, but I enjoy it immensely none the less, in my own way. I will try my hand at making them in the near future, for the experience, and to see what I can do.
It's nice to have poeple as experienced as you in teaching and flutemaking here to guide us-so, thank you for that!
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