Satoko Inoue, piano
John McLachlan, reader
Yuji Itoh The Reconciliation
Akemi Naito Ubazakura
John McLachlan: Fragment
Paul Hayes: The Second Heaven of Desire in Old Tramore

This MUSICON concert features four pieces of music for piano and recitation, composed by four composers based on the works of Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, an Irish-Greek writer who spent much of his life in Japan and who played a significant role introducing Japanese culture to Europe and America. He also spent a few years as a student in the Catholic seminary at Ushaw and there is a cultural centre in Durha, named after him.

The texts used in this project range from the Japanese ghost stories that he was famous for, to dialogues with a Bodhisattva, offering both fascinating and profound content.

As Lafcadio Hearn lived in Ireland, Britain, America, and Japan, the four composers selected for this project are: a Japanese composer; a composer born in Japan who has lived long in America; an Irish composer and a composer born in Ireland who has lived long in Japan and now resides in Ireland and Britain.

The aim of this concert is to forge a new expressive world based on the profoundly compelling literary universe of Lafcadio Hearn – a writer whose complex identity endowed him with a unique perspective on other cultures.

In association with The Oriental Museum, Durham University, and Teikyo University of Japan in Durham.

Tickets: £10 standard, £5 students, £1 under-18s