An Evening with Takashi Kikuchi, Viola Player at Daiwa Foundation
Wednesday 22nd March, 6pm 

Don't miss the opportunity to see this compelling short documentary about award-winning blind Japanese viola player Takashi Kikuchi, as he overcomes his fear of movement through dance and imagination. This special screening will be accompanied by a solo performance on viola by Takashi and an opportunity to ask Takashi and film director Cécile any questions at a Q&A chaired by Jason James, Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. Takashi was commissioned by the Baluji Music Foundation, and is part of a triptych of films about blind musicians in the Inner Vision Orchestra. This event is free, but booking is essential.

Takashi Short documentary, 16', 2020

Born blind with no light perception, as a child Takashi struggled to move his body freely. Exploring dance he breaks

out of feeling physically inhibited, transforming his viola playing. He performs improvised pieces, colour by colour - blue, red, purple and white - as he imagines them. Between shifts working as a waiter, he painstakingly memorises every note from a braille score to play a symphony with a sighted orchestra. On stage, immersed in colour, Takashi shares his unique perception and musical expression with us, and fulfils his dream of becoming a professional

musician.

Executive Producer - Alex Usborne

Director Cécile Embleton

Camera Cécile Embleton

Producer Seemab Gul

Editor Romain Beck

Sound design Andrej Bako

*Please note, we are unable to play the sound in the closing sequence due to music rights restrictions.

Contributors:

Takashi Kikuchi, award-winning Japanese viola player, began studying the viola at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1988, where he was awarded his Doctor of Musical Arts in 2003. He came to the Royal Academy of Music in 1999 for his postgraduate studies and received the teaching diploma LRAM and the Lawson Award. Performances in Great Britain include recitals for the Schubert Music Society, the Treasury Music Society in Whitehall, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Handel House Museum, the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre and the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games in 2012. The distinguished composer Frank Stiles dedicated his third Sonata for Viola and Piano to Takashi. Takashi has performed with the Inner Vision Orchestra since its inception in 2012.

Cécile Embleton is a documentary director based in London. She studied Hispanic literature at Edinburgh University before moving to Rome in 2009 where her journey with creative documentary began. Her debut film The Watchmaker screened at Dok Leipzig, Hot Docs and SXSW. She is currently developing her first feature-length film, Mother Vera, in Belarus, with the support of the Sundance Institute. The project won second place in the first look pitch prize at the Hot Docs Forum in May 2021. She has worked extensively with the Inner Vision Orchestra of blind musicians,

filming their inaugural national tour in 2012 and developing a creative documentary, Colours of Sound that explores three blind musicians' relationship to music.

The Baluji Music Foundation was founded in 2008 by blind Indian multi instrumentalist and composer Baluji Shrivastav OBE and Linda Shanson. It is an arts charity programming and promoting events featuring blind and partially sighted musicians. Its showcase project is the multi-cultural, extremely talented, Inner Vision Orchestra of professional blind musicians which performs nationally

and internationally and has released music on Arc/Naxos. Baluji Music Foundation will shortly be launching its latest research project with Lead Researcher Dr Claire Castle, in collaboration with The University of London and funded by the Vision Foundation, Blind to the Facts 2023, aiming to improve the representation and employment of blind and partially sighted people in the music industry.

Please email baluji@baluji.com to find out how to get involved. www.balujimusicfoundation.org. Registered charity number 1130985