FREE Discussion Panel: Kishi Bashi's Improvisations On EO9066

Chicago Philharmonic is thrilled to present a pre-concert discussion in advance of Kishi Bashi’s Improvisations On EO9066. Following the discussion there will be a short improvised performance by Kishi Bashi and Tatsu Aoki.

Led by Chicago Philharmonic Board Director and violinist Lori Ashikawa, this discussion will feature Kishi Bashi and Chicago-based musician and arts leader Tatsu Aoki discussing their own works centered around Japanese internment in America, as well as their musical histories and approaches to composition and improvisation.

Kishi Bashi is the pseudonym of singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Kaoru Ishibashi. Born in Seattle, Washington, Ishibashi has recorded and toured internationally as a violinist with diverse artists such as Regina Spektor, Sondre Lerche, and most recently, the Athens, Georgia-based indie rock band, of Montreal. He remains based in Athens. He released his album “Omoiyari” (a Japanese word for the idea of creating compassion toward other people by thinking about them) in 2019, in support of his feature length documentary “Omoiyari: A songfilm by Kishi Bashi” which explores minority identity and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans in WWII. After 4 years in the making and over $100,000 donated by backers across the globe, the film officially premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2022. His Emigrant EP, released in 2021, is a very special companion piece to ‘Omoiyari’ and serves as a time capsule of the 2020 condition and a continuation of the concepts explored in ‘Omoiyari’.

Tatsu Aoki is a leading advocate for the Asian American community, as well as a prolific composer, a performer of traditional and experimental music forms, a filmmaker, and an educator. He was born in 1958 into the Toyoakimoto artisan family, and performing by the age of four. In the early 1970s, Aoki was active in Tokyo’s underground arts movement with experimental arts and music. In 1977, Aoki left Tokyo and is now one of the most in-demand performers of bass, shamisen, and taiko, contributing to more than ninety recording projects and touring internationally over the last 35 years. He is noted for being the longest associated bassist for the late Chicago legend Fred Anderson. Aoki is a Founder and Artistic Director of Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, which celebrates its silver anniversary this year (2020). His sustained and intensified endeavors have resulted in many awards from multiple cultural and musical organizations for his cross-cultural collaborations. Of note, in 2007 he received the Milestone Award by the Asian American Institute. In 2010, he received the Chicago’s Cultural Achievement Award from the Japan America Society. And in 2014 he received the “Living in our Culture” Award from the Japanese American Service Committee. In addition to receiving the Illinois Arts Council Ethnic and Folk Arts Master Apprentice Grant for the XX years, he has received the Illinois Secretary of State Community Service Award by Asian American Advisory Council and also a Commendation for Promotion of Japanese Culture by the Foreign Ministry of Japan in 2017.

Tickets to the discussion on April 14, 2023 are free. This event is first come, first seated, please arrive early to guarantee a seat.

To purchase tickets to Chicago Philharmonic’s April 15th concert featuring Kishi Bashi’s Improvisations On EO9066, visit chicagophil.org. For questions about this event please call the Chicago Philharmonic office at 312-957-0000.

The Chicago Philharmonic would like to acknowledge Wintrust Bank for their support of this event and their generous donation of space, staff, and resources.