Credits:

Kai Suzuki. Ayako Nakura, Shigeko Suzuki

Description:

The reed organ – familiar to generations of Japanese as “the pedal organ that stood in the school hall”. Brought to Japan with the westernising reforms of the Meiji era, it has become for many a kind of spiritual home, and here it is heard on two contrasting instruments: one by the once-mighty American firm of Estey, the other a fine Japanese-built example. Kai Suzuki, one of the few professional reed organists, shapes his phrasing as naturally as breathing and reveals the instrument’s little-known true character. A jewel of an album that also includes pieces performed with the vocalist Shigeko Suzuki, among them Furusato, Amazing Grace and Silent Night.- Kai Suzuki (reed organ)After graduating in tuba from the Faculty of Music of Kyoto City University of Arts in 1999, he studied at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich and graduated from the University of Augsb