Photo by Taj Howe

World-renowned avant-garde percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and his Nakatani Gong Orchestra will be performing in Kelowna on October 21st at the Centre culturel francophone de l’Okanagan/Okanagan Francophone Cultural Centre. This concert is the thirty-ninth installment of the Skin and Bones Experimental Music Series - an Okanagan Arts Award nominated concert series dedicated to the presentation of experimental music in the Okanagan.

The Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO) is a contemporary sound art project under the direction of Tatsuya Nakatani. Since the 1990s Nakatani has been redefining the tonal capabilities of the drum set and percussion through extended instrumental techniques, incorporating the use of custom-made bows, similar to the techniques associated with violin or cello. He created the NGO, the only bowed gong orchestra in the world, as an extension of his solo explorations. The NGO is comprised of musicians/performers sourced from the local populace - in this case the Okanagan community - and trained by Tatsuya in the technique of bowing some 16 to 18 large gongs. The result is a shimmering resonance that is both ethereal and meditative, enrobing the listener in pure sound.

This concert is made possible through the collaboration between the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art and the Inner Fish Theatre Society, producers of Kelowna’s annual Living Things International Arts Festival, and frequent collaborators with both the Alternator and Skin and Bones.  The evening will begin with the public unveiling of the 2024 Living Things Festival lineup. The eighth edition of Living Things will be January 20th - 28th).

Doors open at 7:30pm, with music starting at 8pm. Tickets are $20 ($15 for Alternator Members and students). For more information about this event, click here.