Karin Nakagawa

Already mentioned in the 6th century, the koto is a powerful instrument with an elegantly curved body over which the strings are stretched. Each individual string runs over a small white bridge that can be moved, thereby changing the tuning of the notes.

In concert, Karin Nakagawa becomes one with the instrument. Since the age of twelve, she has studied, among others, with the legendary educator and koto player Keiko Nosaka. The very peculiar, seemingly simple, yet incredibly rich Japanese folk music, with its many details, can be sensed in Nakagawa's compositions, as well as jazz and even funk or blues, when she plays a captivating riff with one hand while letting her other hand fly over the strings in inspired improvisation. But natural sounds and extramusical ideas are also essential components of her art. In this context, she mentions the concept of "Ma," a "empty space that does not separate things but connects them," and generally silence as part of the performance: before the music, in its pauses, and at the end as, as she says, an "emotional echo."

In cooperation with AIR – Artist in Residence Lower Austria.