Events - Event View

Japanese guitarist and singer Hiroya Tsukamoto leads the next Portland Folkmusic Society's Global Folksong Workshop, Tsukamoto, who grew up in Kyoto, Japan, and lives in New York, is best known for his superb guitar playing -- among his distinctions is taking second place at the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship both in 2018 and 2022, all ages, $10 advance/$12 door.

For this event Tsukamoto will focus on singing, and teaching participants to sing, a couple Japanese folk songs.

“One is a traditional folk song called ‘Asadoya Yunta’ from Okinawa, Southern part of Japan,” Tsukamoto explained. ”Prior to Japan, Okinawa was an kingdom called Ryukyu Kingdom which lasted about five hundred years.

During that time, people had developed own unique culture including folk music and dance.” He also plans to teach “’Oboro Zukiyo,’ which could be translated as ‘Misty Moon.’ It was composed in 1912, after the Meiji Restoration. Around that time, a lot of things came into Japan from Western countries, including classical music. Japanese composers incorporated Japanese folk with Western classical influences and composed some beautiful songs.”