8 February 2024

'On an Endless Road' - a programme of music by and about trailblazing Japanese women

Categorised under: Events, Grants, Music, Scholarships

On an Endless Road premiered in Tokyo on 10 December 2023.

The UK tour will take place in March 2024 to mark International Women’s Day this March.

At the heart of this dramatic concert programme is a new song cycle written especially for renowned singer and biwa player Akiko Kubota by British composer and Daiwa Scholarships alumna Francesca Le Lohé.

On the tour Akiko will be joined by award-winning international soloists violinist Midori Komachi and pianist Yura Zaiki. Special guest speaker Dr Irena Hayter, (Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Leeds) will talk about Itō Noe and the politically febrile Japan of her time.

Alongside this new work, sits beautiful music for violin and piano by three of Noe’s contemporaries, Japanese women who broke new ground writing in the Western Classical tradition: Kōda Nobu (1870-1946), Toyama Michiko (1913-2006) and Yoshida Takako (1910-1956).

About “Itō Noe: On an Endless Road”
In the satsuma biwa tradition, performers recite tales of historical battles and warriors whilst accompanying themselves on the instrument. When studying the biwa, Francesca Le Lohé began thinking of other kinds of ‘warriors’ and felt the biwa to be the perfect vehicle to engage new audiences with historical trailblazing women. This work celebrates the life of writer and feminist anarchist Itō Noe, killed by Japanese state forces when she was just 28.