Japanese music from ‘30s to be performed at UCI event

You know a school is serious about getting it right when it has help from foreign ministries.

On Sunday, UCI’s Center for Asian Studies will present a Yamato Gaku concert, a genre of Japanese music created in the 1930s. With the help of the Japanese Ministry of Culture, several masters of the tradition will perform on the UCI campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Yamato Gaku originated in the 1930s behind the force of successful businessman Baron Kishichiro Okura. Okura aimed to create new Japanese music fitting with modern times, as Yamato Gaku integrated Western-style singing into the music. The music, though deeply rooted in traditional Japanese music styles, was not particularly successful.

Several musicians form an ensemble of Japanese string, wind and percussion instruments that will perform with a vocalist. The musicians will also explain their compositions and the genre.

Sunday’s concert will be at 3 p.m. in the Social Sciences Lecture Hall at UCI.

— Joseph Serna