On Thursday, December 19, Keiichiro Shibuya’s solo piano concert will be held at Kioi Hall.

Titled Keiichiro Shibuya Playing Piano — Living Room, the concert will feature rising violinist Mayuko Ishigami as a guest performer and scenography by architect Kazuyo Sejima, creating an imagined “Living Room” setting.

The stage will feature an unplugged piano and violin, along with furniture designed by Sejima, as well as select pieces from her own collection by Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. The entire venue will be subtly suffused with La Nuit parfum, a scent designed by Izumi Kan, creating an atmospheric experience.

The performance will include Shibuya’s original compositions along with pieces by Erik Satie, Arvo Pärt, and Yuji Takahashi.

Become a witness to the imaginary “Living Room” unfolding on stage.

The full text by Keiichiro Shibuya about this concert and ticket sales are now available.

【CONCERT DETAILS】

Title : Keiichiro Shibuya Playing Piano―Living Room

Date and Time: Thursday, December 19, 2024. Doors open at 18:20, Concert starts at 19:00.

Venue: Kioi Hall (6-5 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0094)

Tickets: Available on Ticket Pia from Friday, October 11 (https://t.pia.jp)

Advance Ticket Prices: S Seat: ¥11,000 / A Seat: ¥7,700 / B Seat: ¥5,500 / C Seat: ¥3,300

Ticket Purchase URL: https://t.pia.jp/pia/event/event.do?eventCd=2434213

P code：280713, Event Code : 2434213

【CREDITS】

Piano: Keiichiro Shibuya

Violin: Mayuko Ishigami

Scenography: Kazuyo Sejima

Parfume: La Nuit parfum

Scent Design: Kan Izumi

【PROGRAM】

for maria ‒ Keiichiro Shibuya

Midnight Swan ‒  Keiichiro Shibuya

Scary Beauty ‒ Keiichiro Shibuya

Painful ‒ Keiichiro Shibuya

Gnossiennes ‒ Erik Satie

Fratres – Arvo Pärt

Spiegel im Spiegel – Arvo Pärt

Furniture Renku ‒Yuji Takahashi

＊Please note that the program and production are subject to change.

Organizer: ATAK Tokyo Co., Ltd.

Sponsors: POLA Inc., Sowa Delight Co., Ltd.

Coopration: Communication Design Center

Support: Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture

【Artist Text (Full Text)】

About Living Room

About 100 years ago, Erik Satie proposed the concept of “furniture music,” which he defined as “music that does not interfere with daily life or the emotions of the listener, music that is not consciously listened to.” This concept later influenced the birth of Cage’s works, experimental music, and ambient music.

Now, 100 years later, the proposition has become that nearly all music, especially pop music, can be “background music that is less intrusive than furniture.” In this sense, it can be said that Satie has triumphed over a long time.

This is also a form of the decline of music that has accelerated with the rise of streaming; however, I would like to consider the relationship between music listening and reception specifically within the context of theatre rather than the music found in such media.

Theatre is a space with a high level of tension, the complete opposite of the everyday life Satie speaks of, but Satie’s concept of “furniture music” is conceived with theatre and concerts in mind. Yet, this presents a contradiction.

In fact, at the theatre where it was performed at the time, he supposedly “yelled at the audience to keep chatting without listening to the music and ran around the lobby with great fervour.” This is comedy.

The stiffness of the theatre that Satie wanted to reject hasn’t changed much, even 100 years later, and it’s not a wrong setting for listening to music. In reality, I have witnessed various attempts to “eliminate the boundary between the stage and the audience” in concerts, but I believe most ended up being scattered and theatrical failures.

In other words, it is impossible to control only the audience within the framework of a theatre, nor is that something that is desired.

However, is it possible to challenge the classical tension that unites the venue in traditional theatrical music from the stage?  This is something I have been contemplating, and this concert will be a practice and experiment of that idea.

Titled “Living Room,” this concert features several pieces of furniture created by architect Kazuyo Sejima and furniture by Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier that she owns, all arranged together on stage. These items will be used during the performance, allowing one person to rest on the sofa or prepare for a performance while another is playing.

When one person plays, another might relax on the sofa, prepare for their performance, or listen to music.  I have collaborated with Sejima on several projects, and we still have ongoing projects. Her sculptural thinking is always utterly unexpected for me as a musician. So, when creating a fictional living room for musicians on stage came to mind, I immediately consulted with her.

This collaboration allows us to separate the sections where the pianist and violinist perform together from the solo sections, eliminating the formality of entering and exiting the stage. Instead, musicians can relax or play using the furniture on stage, creating a certain theatrical tension and relaxation for the audience to experience. Thus, the stage will not follow the linear and singular time of a traditional concert but will overlap with the layered and private time that Satie refers to as “living,” along with the highly tense atmosphere typical of conventional performances.

In this multilayered, twisted space, the only violinist I envisioned collaborating with is Mayuko Ishigami, who holds a medical license and has expressed that “knowing the beauty of living human organs seen during surgery is a performance advantage.” She possesses a rare technique and sense that reminds one of a performing machine, making her the perfect fit for this project.

And finally, a first-time attempt.

This concert is an extension of the series of piano solo concerts I hold at the end of the year. My piano solo work originated from the album “for maria,” released in 2009.

Prior to that, I had only released noisy and experimental electronic music, but with the release of this extremely quiet and melodic piano solo album, I experienced a significant turning point in my life.

The sound of the piano begins with an attack and gradually decays over a long time. I have often thought that sound continuing to change until it fades away is akin to a fragrance.

La Nuit parfum is a fragrance brand that explores the dense relationship between music and scent, releasing perfumes inspired by the piano works of Ravel and Scriabin alongside their sheet music. We had been discussing the possibility of collaborating one day. So, for this concert, I asked them to create a fragrance inspired by “for maria,” which marked the beginning of my piano solo work.

The scent designer, Izumi Kan, gathers raw materials from plants on Awaji Island and creates uniquely original and artistic scents with a distinctive range of fragrances. The scent created specifically for this concert will subtly fill the venue on the day of the performance, and it is planned to be sold as a perfume there as well.

At the same time, we will also be selling the sheet music for “for maria,” both handwritten and printed, at the venue.

As I have written so far, this concert will involve various layered experiences.

These experiences aim to allow the audience to quietly engage with the tension and relaxation occurring on stage from their seats.

Additionally, in this concert, both the piano and violin will be performed entirely without any amplification, enabling listeners to experience the entire process of sound— from the initial attack to the decay, nuances, and eventual silence— directly from the instruments.

At the same time, the stage design by Kazuyo Sejima will overlap with the fragrance created by La Nuit parfum and Izumi Kan, stimulating various perceptions. This concert will be a departure from my usual approach, as I am not using any electronics in these endeavours.

I would be delighted if this became a new experience that awakens various senses. Simultaneously, I look forward to performing not only my compositions but also pieces by Satie, Pärt, and Yuji Takahashi in this space, which I have yet to experience.

Keiichiro Shibuya