2026.06.23 Registration Open
[IHJ Artists’ Forum/Artist Talk] Bridging Millennia: Echoes of Tradition in the Contemporary Soundscape
Arts & Design
Intellectual Dialogue
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U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow Mike Vernusky has spent the last five months on a deep listening journey across Japan, recording the rhythms of daily life in places ranging from Tokyo and Kanazawa to more remote regions such as Mikata-gun and Kobuchizawa. Along the way, he has collaborated with performers, sound collectives, and local communities while documenting a wide range of sonic environments and cultural spaces.
Throughout the residency, Mike has explored the voices of ancient instruments within contemporary contexts, particularly through improvisation and electronic sound practices. His work combines careful field recording with an ongoing interest in how sound can carry memory, place, and human connection. In this talk, he will share recordings, images, and stories from some of the most meaningful encounters and experiences of his residency. He will also present excerpts from his fellowship project, Dream Shadow, a new work for shakuhachi and electronic sound.
*This event requires a reservation and is limited to the first 30 guests. If you need to cancel your reservation, please notify us in advance. Without notification, we may deny you participation in future events.
Event Overview
| Date | Tuesday / June 23, 2026 / 7:00 pm-8:30 pm |
| Venue | Seminar Room D / International House of Japan |
| Speaker | Mike Vernusky (Composer; U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow) |
| Language | English (with consecutive interpretation) |
| Admission | Free (Reservation-required) |
| Co-sponsored by | Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission  |
Speaker Profile
Composer / U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow
Michael Vernusky
Mike Vernusky creates music for live performance, radiophonic sound, and audiovisual experiences. His music is described as “brash” (The New York Times), “isolationist” (The Wire), and “especially otherworldly” (New Music USA). Mike is an avid field recordist, having recorded calving glaciers in the high arctic, relentless chainsawing in the Amazon to the snake charmers of Marrakech; from the beautiful cacophony that is India to the deadly hippo pools in South Africa. Combining electronic and indigenous instruments, field recordings, and found sounds across various forms of physical media, he creates large-scale, often transcontinental musical works and releases them in album format.
Vernusky has presented his music and ideas at Shanghai Conservatory, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Institut Français Tokyo, Salon Alte Schmiede in Vienna, El Centro para la Música y las Artes Sonoras in Mexico, Harvard University, and The University of Huddersfield. His music is published on BBC Audio, MIT Press, The Wire, NEUS-318 (JP), Ferns Recordings (FR), Audiobulb (UK), Quiet Design (TX), and many other imprints. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, percussionist & figure skater Carolyn Trowbridge. After 16 years of living a double life as an independent artist and Experience Analyst for Apple, he is currently a freelance composer for mixed media.
Mike will be living in Kyoto and Tokyo and be focused on completing a new ensemble work for shakuhachi, early Japanese instruments, and field recordings with electronic sound. His collaborators will comprise Japanese instrumentalists across several generations, all of who are passionate about creating contemporary sounds on their instruments.
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