Come see Flutist Tori Yūraku Murray-Brand
at 440 Gallery!

Saturday, June 7 from 3pm - 5pm

Tori Yūraku Murray-Brand was trained as a Western classical flute player and has been playing shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) for over 20 years. She is a student in the Kyo-Shin-An dojo of James 如楽 Nyoraku Schlefer, a Brooklyn-based musician, composer and grand master of the shakuhachi. Tori was awarded the jin-shi-han license (to teach shakuhachi) as well as her Japanese name, 優楽Yuuraku. At the 440 Gallery she will perform solo traditional Japanese music from the zen tradition. 

The shakuhachi is an end-blown vertical flute made from the root end of bamboo. Its meditative music tradition goes back over 1,000 years and was associated with Zen Buddhism. Monks played shakuhachi as they wandered, begging for alms. Today, the sound of the instrument may be familiar to modern listeners from samurai or kung-fu film scores.