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Zhoushu Ziporyn has worked as a Roy Dickinson Welch Fellow at Princeton University, focusing on the philosophy of music, humor and time, in conjunction with evolutionary comparative cognition and zoomusicology. Winner of various awards, including the Nicola De Lorenzo Prize for Music Composition, the Rob Schultz Junior Scholar Award for best junior paper (AAWM 2021), the Eisner Music Award, The Matthew William Fisher Memorial Award, Alfred Hertz Traveling Scholarship and nominee of the Theatre Bay Area Award for his theatre work in San Francisco. Member of Phi Betta Kappa. Zhoushu has been taught the traditional art of Kyōgen under master Tōjiro Yamamoto, culminating in a hired performance with the Yamamoto family themselves at the National Nō Theater of Japan. After graduating UC Berkeley with a double-major BA (with high distinction) in both Music (Department Citation) and Philosophy, Zhoushu continues to learn from and perform with the Yamamoto company at various venues in Japan to the present, while also actively learning Gagaku music and the shō under the tutelage of gagaku players from the Imperial Household Agency. His philosophical essay on Zhuangzi’s “Butterfly Dream” was published (2017) in Brown University’s philosophy journal, A Priori, and his original post-modern cantata “Star Wars Palimpsest” was published (2018) in UC Berkeley’s Arts and Design journal. As a bicultural amphibian, spanning the SF Bay Area to Tokyo, his pieces have been premiered and recorded by many artists, including harpsichordist Davitt Moroney and guitarist Daisuke Suzuki. As a heartfelt continuation on the theme of “mutual symbiosis” from his government funded research at Tsukuba University in his childhood, he hopes to curate and develop a synergetic culture and discourse that sees the arts and the sciences as two dialoguing cultures, with special inspiration from the Japanese Kagura traditions.
2017年カリフォルニア大学バークレイ校を首席で卒業。音楽と哲学を専攻。2022年プリンストン大学大学院でzoomusicology(生物音楽認識学)を研究テーマに修士取得。ダヴィット・モロニー (Davitt Moroney) 氏に古楽を、ケン・ウエノ (Ken Ueno)氏 に作曲を師事。2016年、ニコラ・ドゥ・ロレンゾ作曲賞、2017年、アイズナー賞及びマシュー・ウィリアム・フィッシャー・メモリアル賞を受賞。2017年より、サンフランシスコのシアター・オブ・ユーゲン（Theatre of Yugen）にて作曲及び脚本担当、監督も務め、オリジナル音楽劇作品も公演。作曲担当したフュージョン音楽劇「能クリスマス・キャロル」は好評に付き、2018年、2019年にも引き続き上演され、様々な高評価のレビューを得て、ニューヨーク拠点の劇場ニュースサイト「ブロードウェイ・ワールド」には、「必見の作品」と絶賛される。2019年には同劇の作曲が特に評価され、シアターベイエリア賞にノミネート。論文、楽譜の出版や、作曲/作品多数。最優秀実験映画賞など、さまざまな映画祭に選出される短編映画「ザ・ハーミット(The Hermit)」の作曲も担当。2021年、ロブ・ショルツ若手学者賞を受賞。ダヴィット・モロニー氏始め、鈴木大介氏など、いろいろな演奏家により演奏され、録音される。バイオリン奏者としても、バロックからジャズとジャンルを超えての幅広いレパートリーで、 演奏多数。能楽狂言方大蔵流山本東次郎家の指導による狂言の舞台の経験もある。 これからの活動 サンフランシスコを拠点にするシアター・オブ・ユーゲンで、雅楽の千年来の古い様式を、現代的な観点からとらえなおしたオリジナル作品を手がけている。雅楽古来の様式を懸命になぞる既存曲の雅楽風カバーにも挑戦中。当劇団での能・狂言とのフュージョン作品は、2017年のプロダクション(作曲担当)、能楽とクリスマス・キャロルのフュージョン劇 (A Noh Christmas Carol)を公演。人気のため、2018年、2019年にも引き続き上演。 「楽器合体型楽譜」というコンセプトを、弦楽器マイスター工房、アンドレアス・プロイス氏と現在探求中である。プロイス氏の企画による「笑い」がテーマのコンサートのために楽曲を提供。レイ・イワズミ氏（バイオリン）と、鈴木大介氏（ギター）が2018年に初演。 当面の活動のテーマは、「音楽で笑い、思考も深める」。時に滑稽でありながらも、森羅万象の原点を表していて、考えを深めてくれる、日本の伝統的な神楽を、おおいに参考にしたい。 楽譜 “Star Wars Palimpsest (Multi-media post-modern cantata) スターウォーズ・パリンプセスト（マルチ・メディアによるポストモダンな カンタータ）”（University of California Berkeley Arts and Design Initiative’s 2017 Undergraduate Arts + Design Publication カリフォルニア大学バークレイ・アーツ・アンド・デザイン 2018年3月） 主な論文 “Linguistic-Syllabic Cognitive Mapping of Sound in Japanese Culture, Interpreted through Japanese Gagaku Music,” Analytical Approaches to World Music Journal, vol. 10.1, May 2022, ISSN 2158-5296. https://journal.iftawm.org/previous/2022-volume-10-number-1/10-1-ziporyn-2/ “Uncertainty, Detachment, and Zhuang Zhou’s Butterfly 不確実、解脱、そして荘子の胡蝶”（A Priori: The Brown Journal of Philosophy, vol. 2 ブラウン大学哲学ジャーナル ア・プリオリ2号 2017年4月） “Star Wars Palimpsest (Multi-media post-modern cantata),” University of California Berkeley Arts and Design Initiative’s 2017 Undergraduate Arts + Design Publication, March 2018, ISBN-13: 9780999845233. “大きな力を導く小さな共生関係(A Small Symbiotic Relationship That Yields Great Power, A Study of Plant Galls),” Tsukuba Journal Biology Vol.10 No.6, June 2011, ISSN 1347-7048. |
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Zhoushu Ziporyn CV 2022
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While I was born in the United States, I moved to Japan at a very young age and grew up there until college. In spite of the many hardships of adjusting to a completely different and in many ways “opposite” environment to America, I was also very fortunate to be exposed to and immersed in the various beauties of the traditional culture of Japan. Having an American father and a Japanese mother, I come from a solidly bilingual and bicultural background, one result of which is native fluency in both English and Japanese. My first encounter with the violin was through my Grandfather who was a semi-professional concert violinist. My first violin lesson was at a workshop at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. I started playing the violin at the age of four and have always been engrossed and fascinated by the art of violin performance and composition. I play the violin with a wide repertoire ranging from Bach solo violin works to compositions by Bartok and Prokofiev, as well as pieces by Corelli, Vitali, Telemann, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Rode, Spohr, Bériot, Mendelssohn, Veuxtemps, Lalo, Bruch, Dvorak, Debussy and Kreisler. I have also been a member of the University Baroque Ensemble directed by Davitt Moroney and I have received private Baroque violin lessons from Carla Moore for a year. I have an extensive dossier in jazz performance and composition as well. I have also studied the organ for a semester.
Among the many wondrous experiences I have had growing up in Japan, I had the privilege of being taught the art of Kyogen under the Kyogen master Tojiro Yamamoto throughout my elementary school years. I also had the privilege of performing various Kyogen pieces including: “Shibiri” (しびり, lit. “The Numbing”); “Kaki Yamabushi” (柿山伏, lit. “The Persimmon Mountain-Training Monk”) and “Busu” (附子, lit. “Aconite”). Later, I also had the honor of performing “Kusabira” （茸, lit. “Mushroom”）at a performance with the masters themselves. I learned a great deal about Japanese aesthetics and culture through this experience, which, to be frank, I had been taking for granted until my return to America for college. Upon returning I soon came to realize that there were many things that could not be directly translated into Western/American cultural norms, and further, that explaining them was no easy task either. I found myself explaining for hours and hours to communicate what to me was the simplest and most viscerally understood concepts that were to be breathed like air when in Japan. Even after such concepts are at least conceptually understood, I sometimes can’t help feeling that the results are only neo-colonized and filtered down versions of the original experiences, tailored to fit the western norm of thinking. It is my privilege as well as my burden to often feel that I intuitively inhabit two cultures which are highly resistant, on a very fundamental level, to mutual understanding. No matter how one might try to explain the deep awe one feels when visiting the temples or shrines in Japan, the strong intuitive sense that nature’s essence lies in the shrines and the shrine’s essence in nature, it more often than not comes out sounding “ridiculous” or somewhat “silly,” when explained in plain words of English.
However, after undergoing this sort of experience a number of times, the frustration turned into a drive and determination to be able to truly share such cultural aesthetics in a more visceral way through music. Indeed, it turned into a drive to achieve a true cultural and even philosophical communion. And I believe the best way to do that is by revisiting my other cultural heritage from my new vantage point and to attain a new mastery of its aesthetics and philosophy through music. Only then, through the communion of musical beauty, will the two cultures achieve a true synthesis. I intend to revisit Japan, now more deeply attuned to the fascinating and universal world of music, in order to learn more about the various musics of Japan and its aesthetics, and to be able to incorporate them into my compositional studies. In my work, I explore various compositional styles from neo-baroque to odd-meter jazz. I aspire to an unusual and creative approach to musical composition, perhaps reflecting my bilingual and bicultural background, of being both American and Japanese. My harmonies are neither Western nor non-Western but a unique blend of sonorities that never quite look correct on paper but aurally blend beautifully.
Among the many wondrous experiences I have had growing up in Japan, I had the privilege of being taught the art of Kyogen under the Kyogen master Tojiro Yamamoto throughout my elementary school years. I also had the privilege of performing various Kyogen pieces including: “Shibiri” (しびり, lit. “The Numbing”); “Kaki Yamabushi” (柿山伏, lit. “The Persimmon Mountain-Training Monk”) and “Busu” (附子, lit. “Aconite”). Later, I also had the honor of performing “Kusabira” （茸, lit. “Mushroom”）at a performance with the masters themselves. I learned a great deal about Japanese aesthetics and culture through this experience, which, to be frank, I had been taking for granted until my return to America for college. Upon returning I soon came to realize that there were many things that could not be directly translated into Western/American cultural norms, and further, that explaining them was no easy task either. I found myself explaining for hours and hours to communicate what to me was the simplest and most viscerally understood concepts that were to be breathed like air when in Japan. Even after such concepts are at least conceptually understood, I sometimes can’t help feeling that the results are only neo-colonized and filtered down versions of the original experiences, tailored to fit the western norm of thinking. It is my privilege as well as my burden to often feel that I intuitively inhabit two cultures which are highly resistant, on a very fundamental level, to mutual understanding. No matter how one might try to explain the deep awe one feels when visiting the temples or shrines in Japan, the strong intuitive sense that nature’s essence lies in the shrines and the shrine’s essence in nature, it more often than not comes out sounding “ridiculous” or somewhat “silly,” when explained in plain words of English.
However, after undergoing this sort of experience a number of times, the frustration turned into a drive and determination to be able to truly share such cultural aesthetics in a more visceral way through music. Indeed, it turned into a drive to achieve a true cultural and even philosophical communion. And I believe the best way to do that is by revisiting my other cultural heritage from my new vantage point and to attain a new mastery of its aesthetics and philosophy through music. Only then, through the communion of musical beauty, will the two cultures achieve a true synthesis. I intend to revisit Japan, now more deeply attuned to the fascinating and universal world of music, in order to learn more about the various musics of Japan and its aesthetics, and to be able to incorporate them into my compositional studies. In my work, I explore various compositional styles from neo-baroque to odd-meter jazz. I aspire to an unusual and creative approach to musical composition, perhaps reflecting my bilingual and bicultural background, of being both American and Japanese. My harmonies are neither Western nor non-Western but a unique blend of sonorities that never quite look correct on paper but aurally blend beautifully.
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