NAKATANI GONG ORCHESTRA

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2025

Doors Open 6:30 PM | Performance 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Tulsa Artist Fellowship - Flagship
112 N. Boston Ave, Tulsa, OK 74103

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL.

On Wednesday, April 9, Tulsa Artist Fellowship is hosting the Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO), led by percussionist and composer Tatsuya Nakatani. This public performance features Tatsuya Nakatani and a community-assembled gong orchestra directed in his original compositions from 7-8:30 pm at Tulsa Artist Fellowship Flagship.

In the last decade, the NGO has performed hundreds of concerts involving thousands of participants around the world in the creation of these transformative sound works. The kobo bows, mallets, and surrounding instrumentation equipment have all been developed and are handcrafted by Tatsuya Nakatani for this work.

All ages welcome. The sound level and space reverberation will be variable. Ear protection will be provided.

ABOUT NAKATANI GONG ORCHESTRA

NGO, the NAKATANI GONG ORCHESTRA, is a contemporary live sound art project that tours internationally. Tatsuya Nakatani began germinating ideas for NGO in early 2002 and finally took the project on the road in April 2011. Since then, he has performed over 100 concerts with NGO internationally (before pandemic 2020). The rich harmonies produced from multiple layers of orchestral gongs are transformative, engaging, and inspiring for both players and audiences. Each performance is unique, as it involved players that Nakatani trains from the community in which the performance occurs. NGO is a continuous, growing community engagement sound art project, as well as the only bowing gong orchestra (in which gongs are played using bows handcrafted by Nakatani) in existence in the world today. Artistic concept, musical composition, conduction, and direction are all the work of Tatsuya Nakatani. Select national and international venues include SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM; MOCA, Cleveland, OH; Bemis Contemporary Art Center, Omaha, NE; Anchorage Museum of Art, Anchorage, Alaska; The Issue Project Room, New York City, NY; Orange Show, Houston, TX; Indexical, Santa Cruz, CA; and The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, among many others.

ABOUT TATSUYA NAKATINI

Tatsuya Nakatani is an avant-garde percussionist, composer, and artist of sound. Active internationally since the 1990s, Nakatani has released over 80 recordings and tours extensively, performing over 150 concerts a year. His primary focus is his solo work and his large ensemble project, the Nakatani Gong Orchestra. He teaches master classes and lectures at universities and music conservatories around the world. Originally from Japan, he makes his home in the desert town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. With his activity in new music, improvisation, and experimental music, Nakatani has a long history of collaboration. Nakatani's distinctive music centered around his adapted bowed gong, supported by an array of drums, cymbals, and singing bowls. In consort with his personally hand-carved Kobo Bows, he has spent decades refining and developing his sound as an arrangement of formations of vibrations, incorporated in shimmering layers of silence and texture. Within this contemporary work, one can still recognize the dramatic pacing, formal elegance and space (ma) felt in traditional Japanese music. Learn more at tatsuyanakatani.com.

VISITOR EXPERIENCE

Tulsa Artist Fellowship strives to provide a welcoming and accessible experience. Our exhibitions and events are free, documented, and archived.

Tulsa Artist Fellowship - Flagship is located at 112 N Boston Ave Tulsa, OK 74103. Public hours are Thursday-Saturday from 12-6 pm. The gallery accommodates wheelchairs and strollers. Variable seating is provided, as well as areas for distanced standing and wheelchairs. Family-scale private washrooms are available to support visitors with disabilities and caregivers who need access to increased square footage and changing tables.

ABOUT TULSA ARTIST FELLOWSHIP

Established in 2015, Tulsa Artist Fellowship was created as a place-based initiative by the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) that addresses pressing challenges faced by contemporary artists and arts workers living in and joining Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa Artist Fellowship believes the arts are critical to advancing cultural citizenship and supports community-invested practitioners who intentionally engage with our city.

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