Japanese Music Ensemble Enthrals Cercle Cité

On the evening of Tuesday 11 February 2025, the Embassy of Japan in Luxembourg hosted a traditional Japanese music event at Cercle Cité in Luxembourg-Ville.

Approximately 200 people attended the free event which took place in the Auditorium Cercle of the Cercle Cité venue in Place d’Armes. The evening’s entertainment was provided by renowned Japanese traditional music ensemble Doppelmond (双月舎 Sogetsu-Sha), who were performing in Luxembourg for the first time.

The evening began with Japan’s Ambassador to Luxembourg, Matsubara Tadahiro, firstly thanking the staff at Cercle Cité for hosting the event, before welcoming all those in attendance, including several ambassadors to Luxembourg: Charles Delogne (Belgium); Carin Lobbezoo (the Netherlands); Benno Laggner (Switzerland); and Engin Yürür (Turkey).

The Japanese ambassador then took the opportunity to reflect on Luxembourg’s longstanding relationship with Japan, highlighting Luxembourg’s involvement at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, detailing that 2026 will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Japanese Embassy in Luxembourg, and that 2027 will mark 100 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The audience were then introduced to the three members of Doppelmond, Mieko Miyazaki (shamisen), Naoko Kikuchi (koto and vocals), Reison Kuroda (shakuhachi and vocals), along with conductor and composer Tomoya Yokokawa.

The performance consisted of six compositions which ranged from the traditional to the contemporary, including a selection of traditional Japanese instrumental works and songs from the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as more modern pieces composed by the group’s conductor Tomoya Yokokawa, German composer Hendrik Rungelrath and American composer Alyssa Aska, who was invited onto the stage to talk about her composition “Renascor”.

The instrumentation of the shamisen (spike-lute), koto (half-tube zither) and shakuhachi (bamboo flute), created a hypnotising atmosphere of dissonant and sporadic sounds, providing a foundation for the haunting vocals of Naoko Kikuchi and Reison Kuroda, and transporting the audience back and forth through the history of Japanese traditional music.

Each part of the set was greeted and received enthusiastically by the audience, with the performers welcomed back to the stage at the end to enjoy further applause for their excellent performance.

An undeniably talented trio, they will surely return to the Grand Duchy in the future to further cement the historic relationship between Japan and Luxembourg.

SM

Updated to correct the name of the Belgian Ambassador.