Called "A Master of the Shakuhachi" by The New York Times, James Nyoraku Schlefer is a leading performer and teacher of shakuhachi in New York City. He received the Dai-Shi-Han or Grand Master's Certificate in 2001, one of only a handful of non-Japanese to receive this high level award, and in 2008 received his second Shi-Han certificate from Mujuan Dojo, located in Kyoto. In Japan he has worked with Aoki Reibo, Yokoyama Katsuya, Yoshio Kurahashi, Yoshinobu Taniguchi, and Mitsuhashi Kifu and his primary teacher in New York was Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin. He holds a Master's degree in Western flute & musicology from Queens College and currently teaches music history courses at the City University of New York. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, BAM, and the Metropolitan, Brooklyn and Philadelphia Museums. Schlefer has three solo recordings, Wind Heart (which travelled 120,000,000 miles aboard the Space Station MIR) Solstice Spirit (1998,) and Flare Up (2002.) His music has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered.

Nyoraku is a member of the Japanese music group Ensemble East, which performs traditional and modern music for Japanese instruments, including the shamisen and the koto. He has performed and lectured at Duke University (two, week-long artist residencies) the Juilliard School, Manhattan and Eastman Schools of Music, Vassar, Haverford, Brown, Union, Moravian, Colby, Colby-Sawyer, Williams and Hunter Colleges, and at music festivals in the US, Asia and Europe. His performances include lectures about the origin, history, and development of this very special music.



Schlefer began his musical career as a Western flautist and continues to perform on this instrument. A dedicated and respected teacher, Nyoraku Sensei is head of the Kyo-Shin-An teaching studio in New York City. He has edited books of traditional notation and written two etude books for shakuhachi technical development. As a composer, Schlefer has written a shakuhachi concerto, a quintet for shakuhachi and string quartet, and numerous pieces for traditional Japanese instruments. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.