Japan Society has announced its 2026-2027 Performing Arts Season of live, in-person performances at the Society. The lineup that includes two world-premiere contemporary music concert programs.
In Fall of 2026, Japan Society will begin the season with its TWO SOILS Series, celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the United States by collecting the origin stories, living myths and traditions of both Japan and the U.S.
This series begins with Rooted: Akiko Yano — Japanese and American Folk on September 18. The show will feature pianist, singer-songwriter and musical icon Akiko Yano. They will perform fresh recreations of Japanese and American folk music alongside two extraordinary collaborators: Tsugaru shamisen virtuoso Hiromitsu Agatsuma and, in a first-ever musical meeting, American folk luminary Sam Amidon.
The series continues on December 11 with White Stones. The concert will present musician Kaoru Watanabe and composer and performance artist Kite (Suzanne Kite). These two artists are influenced by Noh theater and Lakota ceremonial practice to ask what it means to seek ancestral guidance in a country built on forgetting. The duo interweaves traditional instruments and electronics along with Kite’s ground-breaking sovereign AI program, self-built entirely from ancestral stories.
Yoko Shioya, Artistic Director at Japan Society, shared: “Given Japan Society’s special identity as an authority on Japan while, in fact, also being an American institution founded in the U.S., we have programmed our Fall Performing Arts Season around a ‘Nation’ series. This series digs into the national stories of Japan and the United States while showcasing the work of these groundbreaking artists.”
Rooted: Akiko Yano — Japanese and American Folk
Performed by Akiko Yano with Hiromitsu Agatsuma and Sam Amidon
Friday, September 18 at 7:30pm
Pianist, singer-songwriter and musical icon Akiko Yano is set to return to Japan Society to dig into the folk roots of her two homes in Japan and the United States, to perform arrangements of min’yo (Japanese folk song) and American folk alongside two extraordinary collaborators. Yano will reunite with Tsugaru-shamisen virtuoso Hiromitsu Agatsuma to rekindle the celebrated duo “Yano et Agatsuma” in the very theater where their electrifying min’yo project first ignited over a decade ago. And in a first-ever pairing, Yano will welcome fringe American folk luminary Sam Amidon, a fellow traveler in musical reinvention.
White Stones
Created and Performed by Kaoru Watanabe and Kite (Suzanne Kite)
Friday, December 11 at 8:00pm
Tickets: $43/$32 Japan Society members
Japanese-American musician Kaoru Watanabe and Oglala Lakota performance/visual artist Kite (Suzanne Kite) will bring two cultural heritages. They’ll ask what it means to seek ancestral guidance in a country built on forgetting. Their show will weave a soundscape with Japanese drums, flute, koto, voice, violin, electronics and invented instruments. Their music includes meditative stillness and ritual intensity, accompanied by real time creations by Kite’s sovereign AI, built entirely from Indigenous worldviews and ancestral stories. Both artists base their work on the sacred vocabularies of Noh theater and Lakota ceremonial practice, both centered on stone.
(headline image: White Stones_Kaoru Watanabe – Photo by Yurie Ito)
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central