Jo-ha-kyu brings to New Zealand two of Japan’s finest musicians for three unique concerts in Auckland and Wellington.

Tosiya Suzuki is perhaps the world’s foremost contemporary recorder player, taking the often-delicate instrument to acrobatic levels of virtuosity and dynamism.

Koto player Nanae Yoshimura also plays with breathtaking facility, at once explosive and elegant. She also leads the charge in developing new sounds and repertoire for the koto.

Suzuki and Yoshimura perform a recital on Friday, 23 November in the Wellington City Gallery’s Adam Auditorium, and they’re joined the following evening by a host of local chamber music talent. In their final concert in The Loft at Auckland’s Q Theatre, the duo performs alongside guitarist Dylan Lardelli.

Meaning: “beginning, break, rapid”, Jo-ha-kyu represents an artistic sensibility at home in musical languages from a variety of geographical and historical origins. New works by cutting-edge New Zealand composers Samuel Holloway, Dylan Lardelli and Chris Gendall feature alongside new and recent Japanese pieces by Chikako Morishita, Misato Mochizuki and Toshio Hosokawa. Also on the programme is equally cutting-edge music of earlier eras, including traditional Japanese and Italian pieces of the late Renaissance.

With sound-worlds united in their ambition to transform listener experience, performed with unbridled verve and passion, Jo-ha-kyu promises three unmissable events.

Friday, 23 November: Adam Auditorium, Wellington City Gallery

Tosiya Suzuki – Recorder

Nanae Yoshimura – Koto

Programme includes music by Giovanni Bassano, Toshio Hosokawa, Salvatore Sciarrino, Misato Mochizuki, Dylan Lardelli, and Hiroyuki Itoh

Saturday, 24 November: Adam Auditorium, Wellington City Gallery

Tosiya Suzuki – Recorder

Nanae Yoshimura – Koto

Dylan Lardelli – Guitar

Peter Dykes – Oboe

Hayden Sinclair – Clarinet

Inbal Meggido – Cello

Hamish McKeich – Conductor

Programme includes music by Chikako Morishita, Samuel Holloway, Joji Yuasa, Chris Gendall, Dylan Lardelli and Akihito Tokunaga

Monday, 26 November: The Loft at Q Theatre, Auckland

Nanae Yoshimura - Koto

Tosiya Suzuki - Recorder

Dylan Lardelli - Guitar

Programme includes music by Toshio Hosokawa, Misato Mochizuki, Takashi Tokunaga, Samuel Holloway, Dylan Lardelli, and Salvatore Sciarrino

Tickets: $25/$15