for use in program notes…
Anne Norman is a passionate shakuhachi performer and composer working as a soloist and in collaboration with a diverse range of musicians and other artforms. In recent years she has been writing eco-poetry, incorporating spoken and sung word within her recitals. In 2018 she was invited to present her new music at the World Shakuhachi Festival in London, performing and giving workshops on vocalising while blowing shakuhachi.
Following a music degree on classical flute at Melbourne Uni, Anne trained on shakuhachi in Japan in the mid 1980s and early 90s under three masters including a Japanese Government scholarship to study with Living National Treasure, Yamaguchi Goro at Tokyo Univ. of Fine Arts and Music. She has performed in festivals and concerts across Australia and in Europe, America and Japan and was Artistic Director of Tunnel Number Five: festival of underground music in Darwin for three years, hosting musical collaborations with Songmen from Arnhem land and musicians from around the country. Anne is featured on numerous CDs and film sound-tracks.
Shakuhachi is a family of end-blown bamboo flutes constructed from various lengths of the root-end of a heavy kind of bamboo. Used for centuries in Japan as a tool for “Blowing-Zen,” it was also played to accompany voice and perform chamber music with plucked strings. Shakuhachi is now played globally in evocative film music, mixed music ensembles and for personal contemplative expression.
Promotional photographs of Anne for use in concert publicity.