Writer Yoko Tawada and jazz pianist Aki Takase will perform together on Nov. 2 as part of Art Complex 2007, a new project held by Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, which combines chamber music, art, theater and contemporary dance.
Akutagawa Prize-winner Tawada, currently living in Berlin, has been writing novels, poems and plays, in Japanese and German, which have also been translated into English, French, Russian and Polish. She published her first collection of poems in a bilingual edition in 1987.
Pianist/composer Takase is also internationally active, mainly in European jazz events such as Montreux Jazz Festival. Takase has been performing since 1987 as concert leader of Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, which is directed by Alex von Schlippenbach. She has won prizes in Germany, including The German Record Critics Award for her album, "St. Louis Blues" in 2002.
Tawada and Takase have already collaborated several times in Germany, with Tawada reading passages from her own texts as Takase improvises on the piano. This concert will be performed at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall Gallery in Yokohama, alongside an installation by contemporary Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, also based in Berlin. Tawada will read new texts in Japanese, inspired by Shiota's artwork — which features a burned piano.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. The venue is a 6-minute walk from Nihon-Odori Station on the Minato Mirai Line (Exit 3), or 15 minutes from Kannai or Ishikawacho stations (JR Negishi Line). Tickets are ¥2,500 in advance from the Kanagawa Kenmin Hall Ticket Center ([045] 662-8866).
