A Year in the Rearview…
I hope everyone had a lovely holiday of their choosing!
We’ve made it through the longest night, but before we leap ahead to what’s coming up in the New Year, here are a few highlights from 2024:
‘24 started strong with our first trip back to Japan since the before times. It was the longest I’d been away—5 years—and words can’t explain how good it was to be back. 2024 also marked 10 very good years of playing with our dear, dear friend Genta Fukue. I also had the good fortune of reconnecting with the amazing Yanase family in Shimonoseki…
at Molly Malone’s, Hiroshima
Summer of ‘24 saw a return to my beloved State of Maine for the Acadia Trad Fest, and a chance to catch up with fellow Josephine Countyites Erica and Matt Shipman, and all my old Portland chums. I miss them all terribly making these moments all the more precious.
I was also given the most extraordinary gift: during the faculty concert at Acadia, I played a set with the amazing Liz Hanley. It was an amazing moment—one of my favorite musical experiences—and it was captured by one of my favorite artists, Vincent Crotty. My hosts, Matt and Maureen Murphy saw fit to send it home with me. It now hangs prominently in my office…
It’s been such a pleasure to have a little involvement with the amazing Celtic Arts Foundation, right here in my hometown of Mount Vernon, WA. The monthly session has been terrific, and the debut of our new group Steeplechase (sans intrepid bodhránist David Lofgren) was a smash! I’m so excited with this project and having some music to sink my teeth into. Lots to come in 2025, but more on that later…
Shakuhachi performances continued apace, with concerts and lectures in Washington, Oregon, New York, Connecticut, and Japan. Many thanks to the organizers and to fellow instructors, particularly Ralph Samuelson and Adam Robinson, for inviting me to teach and perform…
(clockwise: with Ralph Samuelson at The Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn; with Yamaji Miho; with the shakuhachi group in the Hudson Valley, NY)
…New York served as a debut performance of my first original composition. I also released a video filmed by two-time Emmy Award winning filmmaker Peter West of the first of three pieces in the suite titled “Ren-ren”.
Likely, if I take one thing away from 2024, it will be the reunion of K.M.R.I.A. I say it after every show: this was the best one yet! but I truly believe these two shows in Seattle and Portland we’re our best. Perhaps it was heightened by the passing of Shane MacGowan, or that it had been nearly 10 years since we were all together—especially given the difficulty of wrangling everyone’s hectic schedules. Whatever the reason, this was special and I am grateful to all of you who came and sang along with us…
(Jenny Conlee-Drizos, Jesse Emerson, Ezra Holbrook, Casey Neill, Scott McCaughey, Derek Brown, Chris Funk)
2025: Year of the Snake!
aaaah! snake!
We’re slithering into 2025 with a residency at Honey Moon in Bellingham, WA before Steeplechase really set our plans for world domination in motion (fear not, we will be benevolent overlords…). A lot on the horizon so click here to subscribe to the newsletter.
(David Pender Lofgren, bodhrán; Sam Vogt, guitar/whistle; Zach Bauman, bouzouki)
So 2024, while not without its challenges, managed to pull off some heady and remarkable highs. I have plenty of fear and trepidation with the many unknowns facing us moving forward, but with any luck, music made by real people playing real instruments will still have a place in our uncertain society for a while longer.
More anon,
Hanz