Cornelius Boots

Friday, June 26, 2020 at 8 pm

Download a copy of the program here.

Cornelius Boots, jinashi shakuhachi & taimu

PROGRAM

Cornelius Boots (b. 1974)
Bamboo Breather Blues

Cornelius Boots
Dark Tree Moan (for Son House)

Cornelius Boots
Underground Sun

Eric Dolphy (1928–1964), arr. C. Boots
Serene (a.k.a. Sorino)

Cornelius Boots
Mandrake Walks (for Eric Dolphy)

John Coltrane (1926–1967), arr. C. Boots
Wise One

Tamuke 手向
traditional Zen Buddhist devotional solo (honkyoku 本曲)

Cornelius Boots
Holy Old Soul

Melora Creager (b. 1966), arr. C. Boots
Thimble Island

Niela Miller/Billy Roberts/Jimi Hendrix, arr. C. Boots
Hey Joe

About the artist

“exuberant … a natural anxiety demolisher” (Paste Magazine)

“far left of center–beyond category” (Ari Herstand, author of How to Make It in the New Music Business)

Founder/composer of Black Earth Shakuhachi School, Cornelius Boots has forged his own eclectic style as a professional woodwind performer since 1989. A three-time graduate of Jacobs School of Music (BM Classical Clarinet ’97, BS Audio Recording ’97, MM Jazz Studies ’99) and licensed shihan (master) in the dynamic shakuhachi lineage of Watazumido. First Prize winner of the 2013 International Clarinet Composition Competition, Boots has also received commissions and awards from Chamber Music America, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Areon Flutes, International Songwriting Competition and Meet the Composer and performed at concerts and festivals in Montreux, Chicago, Assisi, Prague, Tokyo, Karasuyama, and Quebec.

In 2018, he was a finalist in the World Shakuhachi Competition, a featured performer for Sony PlayStation’s E3 press conference (LA) and a featured performer/lecturer at both the World Bamboo Congress (Xalapa, Mexico) and the World Shakuhachi Festival (London). In 2019, Boots started up the Heavy Roots Shakuhachi Ensemble, the world’s first bass shakuhachi group, debuting at SF Music Day. As a series curator at the Center for New Music in San Francisco, Boots will be collaborating with other deep woodwind soloists and innovators in 2020 and 2021.

Boots’ experience as a jazz saxophonist, orchestral clarinetist, funk bandleader and founder/composer of the renowned bass clarinet quartet Edmund Welles have made him a sought after composer and collaborator for bold woodwind soloists, rock and chamber groups as he continues to create new repertoire for his instruments.