2018
Coming Alive
Building for Future Generations
Benefit For Sonoma Mountain Zen Center's
New Meditation Hall and Community Building
SATURDAY
SEPTEMBER 8th 11:00am - 3:00pm
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Coming alive! Celebrate and support the 2nd phase or the Mandala Temple Project. Join us for an elegant, intimate afternoon of Zen on the tranquil mountainside. The event features the highly anticipated live musical performance by Alam Khan playing Indian classical raga on the Sarode accompanied by Manik Khan and Nilan Chaudhuri on Tabla. Treat yourself to an authentic traditional Omotesenke tea ceremony and a bento box lunch with dessert and refreshments under the ancient oak trees. Support our raffle featuring original calligraphy by Jakusho Kwong-roshi and be a winner! - All proceeds go towards our new meditation hall and community building. Support our Raffle and Be a Winner! - All proceeds go to the construction of our new meditation hall and community building. Temple Benefit flier.
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Tickets Limited (tea ceremony, concert, bento box): $100 (kids free)
Purchase in person, online or call (707) 545-8105.
11:00 - 11:15 Welcome & Temple Project Update
11:15 - 11:45 Omotesenke Tea Demonstration
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11:45 - 12:45 Serving Sweets and Tea
12:45 - 1:15 Intermission
1:15 - 2:15 Sound of Indian Classical Ragas
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2:30 - 3:15 Bento Lunch Under the Great Oak
3:00 - 3:15 Drawing Raffle Prizes
3:15 - 3:30 Closing Announcements
Featuring Musical Performance
Alam Khan on Sarode Expressing the Ancient Ragas
Accompanied by
Manik Khan on Sarode & Nilan Chaudhuri on Tabla
Alam Khan • Sarod
Son of the legendary Sarode Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, Alam has been touching the hearts of audiences worldwide for many years. Since his initial training into the Maihar Seni Gharana at the age of seven, Alam was blessed to learn and live in the traditional style of Guru and student. Ali Akbar Khan's careful crafting and guidance shows in each note as well as in Alam's imaginative way of expressing the ancient ragas passed down from the courts of Emperor Akbar by Mian Tansen in the 16th century.
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Alam's performance career was introduced to the world when he began accompanying his father onstage, internationally, from 1996 to 2006. They played in such prestigious venues as the Royal Jodhpur Palace, the Dover Lane Music Festival in Calcutta, and New York's Lincoln Center Jazz festival, as well as highly acclaimed concerts all over the United States, Canada, Europe and India.
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Video Clip - Alam Khan, from the EP "Vignettes"
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Manik Khan • Sarode
Manik is the youngest son of the late maestro, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. He teaches, performs, and work to preserve his family’s legacy at Ali Akbar School if Indian Music and India’s rich cultural history alive and flourishing. He collaborates with local high schools to bring Indian Classical Music to their youth orchestras, and performs with the conductor Michael Morgan and the Fremont Symphony Orchestra to present a ‘West Meets East’ collaboration.
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Nilan Chaudhuri • tabla
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Nilan Chaudhuri has spent his entire life immersed in the tradition of Indian Classical Percussion. The son of Maestro Swapan Chaudhuri and a disciple of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Nilan received his first Tabla lesson from his father at the age of five.
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Drawing inspiration from his father’s innovative and revolutionary approach to classical Tabla solo, Nilan was determined from a young age to be proficient as a soloist. He presented his first public Tabla solo at the age of eleven, at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael in the presence of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. Within months of his first recital, sensing his passion and devotion to the art form, Nilan was accepted as a ganda bandan disciple of Khansahib’s and underwent the sacred ceremony in which the Guru ties a thread around the disciple’s hand, initiating a life long bond and blessing. Over the course of the next decade, Nilan would go on to lead the AACM youth Tabla Ensemble, performing various arrangements of his father’s compositions in ensemble format throughout the United States and India. It was during these formative years that Nilan was introduced to the world of Tabla accompaniment by Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, providing rhythmic support for his vocal and instrumental classes at the College.
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Experience the Spirit of Omotesenke Tea Ceremony
Eiko Mouri Sensei and Kashin Kwong
Guests will experience a Japanese tea ceremony with master Soei Mouri Sensei and Kashin Kwong. This immersive demonstration is a full body experience of sight, sound, scent, taste, touch, and mind. The audience will be invited to participate in the ceremony as tea guests, and Japanese sweets and tea will be served.
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The ceremony will be performed by Soei Mouri Sensei, a certified teacher of Chanoyu (tea ceremony) in the Omotesenke tradition. As the Vice President of Omotesenke Domonkai of Northern California, she has worked closely with the Omotesenke headquaters in Kyoto, Japan for many years. Kashin Kwong is a resident of Sonoma Mountain Zen Center and has studied tea with Soei Mouri Sensei for ten years.
Tea Ceremony Accompanied by Traditional Japanese Shakuhachi, Koto, & Shamisen
Elliot Kallen • Shakuhachi
Initially trained as a concert pianist Elliot Kallen migrated into the world of Rock and Jazz, playing keyboards for many bands and on many stages. A chance encounter led him to the Japanese bamboo flute and, since 2004, he has been a student of David Kansuke Wheeler of Boulder, CO. Elliot also studies with Kansuke’s teacher, Junsuke Kawase III in Tokyo, and is a member of Chikuyusha, the largest organization of its kind in Japan. He plays shakuhachi in a wide variety of contexts, from traditional Japanese music with koto and shamisen, to the exploratory sounds of the avant-garde. Elliot is also a founding member of TenTen Taiko, performing throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. He performs, teaches, and does lectures on Japanese classical music and the shakuhachi from his home base in Northern California.
Naoko • Koto & Shamisen
Naoko has been playing the koto since she was six years old. She was taught by Koji Kikuhara who was a highly ranked student of National Living Treasure Hatsuko Kikuhara. In 1987, she passed a professional music examination at the Todo Music Association that proudly claims more than 100 years of history. She studied classical singing with Ichijuro Kiyomoto and Fujima style dance with Monjuro Fujima from 1979 to 1981; and, has been taking biwa lesson from Hokuniu Kyokuto Kimura, aka Molly Kimura. She received a Shoden degree from Head Master Iemoto Kyokuso Tachibana with Chiluzen-biwa Nihon-Tachibana Organization on November 30, 2009. As a performer of Nogawa Style jiuta shamisen and Ikuta style koto, she continues to perform at several places in the United States since 1994.
Buy raffle tickets in support of our fundraising goals ~ We have some wonderful prizes this year!! Raffle prizes will be given out at the end of the day, so purchase your raffle tickets, tell your friends and support the Zen Center. The more you purchase the more chances you will have to win Grand Prizes below.
Help us Meet Our Goal and Complete our New Temple Buildings.
Please purchase tickets day of event or call 707-545-8105. You do not need to attend event to win.
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Please help us spread the word!
Post a Benefit flyer at your favorite coffee shop!
This year's original calligraphy by Jakusho Kwong-roshi is one of two Grand Prizes for the raffle! (click image to enlarge)
1st Grand Raffle Prize!
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Original Calligraphy by Jakusho Kwong-roshi
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2nd Grand Raffle Prize!
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&
Dinner for 2 at Yeti Restaurant
Gourmet Indian & Nepalese Restaurant
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More Raffle Prizes
To Come!!!
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stay tuned for updates…
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RAFFLE
The Raffle Drawing will be held
at the event on September 8;
need not be present to win!
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Raffle Tickets are $10 each.
Contact us at 707-545-8105
to purchase raffle tickets in advance;
or mail a check to the Zen Center with a note containing your name, phone number, email address and ticket quantity
– or purchase them at the event!
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Join in supporting Sonoma Mountain Zen Center! Buy raffle tickets for yourself, give some to your friends!
Order early and spread the word! We’ll all be winners if you do!
When the mandala governs
People are hardly aware that it exists.
The mandala doesn't talk, it acts.
When its work is done,
People say, "Amazing!
We did it all by ourselves!"
~ Tao Te Ching
