Performance to Feature Japanese Music

The free and public performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Carswell Hall, Room 111. An informal reception will immediately follow the concert.

The Ledbetters, of Hillsboro, are part of “Circle in the Round,” a musical ensemble established in 1980. The concert will feature the music of the shakuhachi, a five-hole, bamboo root-end flute, and a koto, a 6-foot, 13-string long board zither.

The Ledbetters and other “Circle in the Round” performers lived in Tokyo, Japan, for eight years studying and performing the country’s traditional music.

Clarence studied the shakuhachi and earned his initial teaching license, the Jun shinan, for the instrument from the Tozan Shakuhachi Ryu (School). He went on to pass the master teacher’s examination, only the third foreigner to reach the esteemed level in the school’s 100-year history.

Clarence Ledbetter also has a 30-year background in the recorder and baritone horn, as well as percussion for jazz, Latin and African music.

Clarence’s wife, Janet, studied the koto while in Japan. Her musical background includes 10 years of piano study and extensive research in ethnomusicology, the study of music from native cultures around the world. Janet is also a practicing attorney specializing in international business transactions, mediation, real estate issues and artist representation.

The performance is sponsored by the Asian studies program, the music department, the Year of Globalization and Diversity, international studies and the Triad chapter of the North Carolina Japan Center. For more information, call 336-758-5788.