James Nyoraku Schlefer

about

Called "A Master of the Shakuhachi" by The New York Times, James Nyoraku Schlefer is a leading performer and teacher of shakuhachi in New York City. He received the Dai-Shi-Han or Grand Master's Certificate in 2001, one of only a handful of non-Japanese to receive this high level award, and in 2008 received his second Shi-Han certificate from Mujuan Dojo, located in Kyoto. In Japan he has worked with Aoki Reibo, Yokoyama Katsuya, Yoshio Kurahashi, Yoshinobu Taniguchi, and Mitsuhashi Kifu and his primary teacher in New York was Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin. He holds a Master's degree in Western flute & musicology from Queens College and currently teaches music history courses at the City University of New York. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, BAM, and the Metropolitan, Brooklyn and Philadelphia Museums. Schlefer has three solo recordings, Wind Heart (which travelled 120,000,000 miles aboard the Space Station MIR) Solstice Spirit (1998,) and Flare Up (2002.) His music has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered. Nyoraku is a member of the Japanese music group Ensemble East, which performs traditional and modern music for Japanese instruments, including the shamisen and the koto. He has performed and lectured at Duke University (two, week-long artist residencies) the Juilliard School, Manhattan and Eastman Schools of Music, Vassar, Haverford, Brown, Union, Moravian, Colby, Colby-Sawyer, Williams and Hunter Coll

top songs

albums

Wind Heart

Solstice Spirit

Spring Sounds Spring Seas: Hagen, Schlefer

Flare Up

In The Moment

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World Tour - Classical Composers Explore World Music

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Buddha and Bonsai Volume 4

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Spring Sounds Spring Seas

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Buddha and Bonsai Volume 5

Spring Sounds, Spring Seas

A Prayer for the Missing

International Shakuhachi Concert 13

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