ACC Grant Announcement

Blogs: turns out, I’m bad at updating them. Oh well.

I have been very busy in the past year I have not been updating this blog, however. In particular, Throwaway released its debut album, toured in Japan, and was named one of the best albums of 2019 by Ghettoblaster Magazine and Organ Thing.

But I’ll take this opportunity to make an exciting announcement: I’ve been awarded a grant by the Asian Cultural Council to travel to Japan for three months in spring 2020. For what purpose, you might ask? To study the shamisen, of course! I’ll be primarily in Tokyo, in residency at the Youkobo Artspace and studying with Reigen Fujii and Hidejiro Honjoh.

The Asian Cultural Council does amazing work and continually astounds me with their kindness, generosity, helpfulness, and enthusiasm. I cannot thank them enough for this incredible opportunity.

I would also like to give a huge shout out to Bachido - they’re a LA-based website helping Westerners have access to the shamisen, and their founder Kyle has been ridiculously helping in fielding all my questions.

Onward!