Skip to content ↓

KIOKU event blends tradition, collaboration

KIOKU, an experimental and improvisatory East Asian music group, will perform with MIT's pungmul group, Oori, in the Lewis Music Library (14E-109) on Friday, March 5 at 6:30 p.m.

The New York City-based ensemble KIOKU creates a new terrain between traditional Asian music and collaborative improvisation. The trio consists of MIT Visiting Assistant Professor Christopher Ariza (live electronics), Wynn Yamami (taiko and percussion) and Ali Sakkal (saxophones).

The group has performed at the Vision Festival, Edgetone Summit, Galapagos, Rubin Museum and Noguchi Museum, and held an artist residency at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. KIOKU's first CD, "Both Far and Near," was described in All About Jazz as "fiercely aggressive in its crusade for a powerful, liberated music that takes the great tradition of free jazz and steeps it in Japanese spirituality."

Oori, MIT's student pungmul group, performs traditional Korean music. Employing jang-goo (an hour-glass shaped drum), kwaeng-ga-ri, (a small gong), jing (a larger gong), and buk (a barrel drum), Oori brings to life musical traditions extending back hundreds of years. The group consists of MIT students and community members from a variety of backgrounds.

This event is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the MIT Libraries and the Music and Theater Arts Section. Read more

More MIT News

Headshot of Catherine Wolfram

A delicate dance

Professor of applied economics Catherine Wolfram balances global energy demands and the pressing need for decarbonization.

Read full story