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Opera North

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Akiko Kubota

Soloist

On an Endless Road - International Women's Day

Leeds

United Kingdom

Howard Assembly Room

On an Endless Road - International Women's Day: *New Work Various

Public

*New Work

Simon Samuel

Approved

A unique opportunity to see renowned singer and musician Akiko Kubota perform in the UK, in a programme of music by and about trailblazing Japanese women to celebrate International Women’s Day (8 March).

At its heart is a new composition for voice and biwa, written especially for Kubota by British composer Francesca Le Lohé, first heard in Tokyo in December 2023. The biwa is a stringed instrument traditionally used to accompany narrative songs that chronicle the achievements of warriors in battle. This new work celebrates the brief life of a brave and radical woman: writer and feminist anarchist Itō Noe (1895-1923), killed by Japanese state forces when she was just 28. It is sung in Japanese with English surtitles.

Alongside this new work sits beautiful music for violin and piano by three of Noe’s contemporaries, women who broke new ground writing in the Western Classical tradition: Kōda Nobu (1870-1946), Toyama Michiko (1913-2006) and Yoshida Takako (1910-1956). Special guest speaker Dr Irena Hayter (Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Leeds), will be here to tell us more.

Akiko Kubota has performed across Asia, South America and Europe including with the Vienna Philharmonic. Francesca Le Lohé’s is active in the UK and Japan. Her opera ‘The Key’ won the prestigious Keizo Saji Prize in 2019 and she is an LSO Soundhub Associate 2022-2024.

English

On an Endless Road - International Women's Day by Various, Ó (2024/2024), Howard Assembly Room, Leeds, United Kingdom

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