Koto star Miyama McQueen-Tokita helps herald spring with the VSO, March 10 and 12 at the Orpheum
The Tokyo virtuoso plays a new work by Rita Ueda on a program that spans Stravinsky and Sharman
Tokyo’s Miyama McQueen-Tokita has been playing the 13-string koto since she was a child.
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra presents The Rite of Spring on March 10 and 12 at the Orpheum, and March 11 at Surrey’s Bell Performing Arts Centre
ALSO KNOWN AS THE “Japanese harp”, the koto is a long wooden zither with 13 silk strings that makes hauntingly beautiful, uniquely resonant music.
It’s been Miyama McQueen-Tokita’s instrument of choice since she was just seven years old. She’s gone on to explore the bass koto as a tool for improvisation, becoming a leading innovator on the instrument.
Now the rising Tokyo star is headed here from Tokyo to premiere local composer Rita Ueda’s new Bloom with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. (It was a joint commission by the VSO and Victoria Symphony Orchestra.)
The piece shares the program with another recent composition, Rodney Sharman’s After Schumann, as well as Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring—the tempestuous, tradition-busting composition that shocked the audiences of 1913 Paris.
The sounds of its plaintive bassoon juxtaposed with the otherworldly strings of McQueen-Tokita's koto? We can’t think of a better way to herald spring.
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