presented by Nonsequitur & Earshot Jazz Festival with support from Chamber Music America.

Seattle-based percussionist, composer, educator and instrument inventor Paul Kikuchi presents the premiere of his song cycle for chamber jazz ensemble, inspired by the memoir and 78 RPM record collection of his great grandfather, Zenkichi Kikuchi, a 1901 Japanese immigrant to the Yakima Valley. With Stuart Dempster (trombone, conch shells), Bill Horist (prepared guitar), Tari Nelson-Zagar (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola), Maria Scherer Wilson (cello).

Kikuchi has performed in collaborative projects from large to small, with Wally Shoup, Stuart Dempster, and solo, in site-specific works. He’s the artistic director and founder of Prefecture Records and held residencies at Centrum, near Port Townsend, and at the Montalvo Arts Center, California. He holds a master of fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts African American Improvisational Music program led by Wadada Leo Smith, of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).