https://asia.si.edu/podcast/music-from-japan-echoes-of-the-silk-road/

This is a recording from the Music From Japan Festival 2012 at the Freer Gallery. This program was made for an ancient West Asian harp that was preserved from an eighth-century Japanese imperial storehouse in the city of Nara. The Music from Japan Festival was founded in 1975 by Naoyuki Miura, who is also the group’s current artistic director. Music from Japan is the leading presenter of Japanese contemporary and traditional music in the United States. The ensemble has performed over 400 works, which include 73 world premieres and 61 commissions, throughout tours in North and South America, Central Asia, and Japan. The group has received awards such as the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation, the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Award and the Sen Kayoko Award from the Soroptimist Japan Foundation. The soloist recreates the sound of the kugi, or harp, in works that were commissioned for the National Theater or Japan and to commemorate the 1,200th anniversary of the city of Jyoto and honor the victims in the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Soloist Fuyuhiko Sasaki was accompanied by five other members playing, shakuhachi (flute), sho (mouth organ), hichiriki  (double-reeds), haisho (panpipes), and voice.