Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

On January 29th, 2011, Elizabeth Brown's composition Shinshoufuukei, or An Imagined Landscape ( 心象風景 (しんしょうふうけい) won first prize in the Makino Yutaka no Kai competition in Tokyo. This was the fourth round of this highly regarded competition, and only the second time that the first prize of 500,000 yen was awarded.

Makino Yutaka (1930-2005) was a successful concert and film composer and beloved teacher who championed Japanese traditional instruments in addition to writing for western instruments. His students hold a composition competition for Japanese traditional instruments in his name every two years. This year, the competition was for a large ensemble with conductor. Three finalists were chosen from anonymous submissions, and these pieces were performed in Tokyo's Kioi Hall on January 29th, 2011. The final decision was made following this performance. Judges were Tomiko Kojima, (chair) ethnomusicologist, and critic; Hozan Yamamoto, Living National Treasure shakuhachi player and composer; composers Isao Matsushita and Iwao Konko; Takuo Tamura, percussionist and conductor of Pro Musica Nipponia; Tomoko Sunazaki, koto player and president of Makino Yutaka no Kai; and Norihiro Ishikawa, koto player and vice president of Makino Yutaka no Kai.

Inada Yasushi conducted Pro Musica Nipponia in Brown's Shinshoufuukei, which is scored for three shakuhachi (two 1.8 and one 2.1), nohkan, shou, ichigenkin, shamisen, two kotos, one 20-string koto, and percussion (ko-tsuzume and binzasara).

Elizabeth Brown began studying shakuhachi with Ralph Samuelson in 1984 and has written a number of pieces which include Japanese traditional instruments. Mirage, for shakuhachi and string quartet, was a prizewinner in the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music Shakuhachi Competition 2010, and was performed at Tokyo's Opera City, Takemitsu Memorial in October 2010.