Shomyo: Buddhist Ritual Chant

MUSIC Shomyo: Buddhist Ritual Chant Thursday, March 6, 7:30 PM North American Debut Shomyo no Kai--Voices of a Thousand Years Co-presented with the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation at St. Bartholomew’s Church. The glorious, reverberating voices of two dozen Buddhist priests in colorful robes fill the grand hall of St. Bartholomew’s Church. One of the oldest living forms of vocal music, shomyo is believed to have originated in India before traveling along the Silk Road and eventually entering Japan in the 6th century, where it has been practiced ever since. The critically acclaimed group Shomyo no Kai--Voices of a Thousand Years, comprising priests from the Shingon and Tendai sects whose mission is to showcase the beauty of shomyo as an art form, performs the contemporary shomyo work Life in an Autumn, written in the aftermath of 9/11 by New York- and Tokyo-based composer Ushio Tor