Performing Arts Japan 2014-2015
List of Awardees
The Japan Foundation is pleased to announce grant awards totaling US$246,000 to 10
organizations in Canada and the United States through the PAJ Program for the 2014-2015
fiscal year. The grant recipients are listed below. (Please contact the Japan Foundation, NewYork for further information and finalized performance dates).

Touring Grant awards
Total projects: 5
Total funds allocated: $151,000
Grant amounts: $17,000 – $40,000

Coastal Jazz and Blues Society (Vancouver, BC) for a six-city, high profile Canadian jazzfestival tour of Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra.
Tour Date: June 20, 2015 – June 30, 2015
Tour Locations: Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC); Royal Theatre (Victoria, BC); The
Odeon (Saskatoon, SK); Harbourfront Centre (Toronto, ON); Confederation Park (Ottawa,ON); Place des Arts Plaza (Montreal, QC)

Issue Project Room, Inc. (Brooklyn, NY) for a four-city U.S. tour of Naïve Music that
presents rare and first-time U.S. appearances by Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Che-Shizu, and àqui avec Gabriel – three innovative but under-recognized Japanese artists and ensembles
experimenting with folk and pop music traditions.
Tour Dates: September 17 – 25, 2014
Tour Locations: The Roy and Edna Disney Center/CalArts Theater - REDCAT (Los Angeles,CA); Nameless Sound (Houston, TX); Bowerbird (Philadelphia, PA); ISSUE Project Room(Brooklyn, NY)Japan Society, Inc. (New York, NY) for a six-city North American tour of contemporary
visual artist Miwa Yanagi’s theater production Zero Hour – Tokyo Rose, the Last Tape.
Tour Dates: January 24 –February 28, 2015
Tour Locations: Japanese Canadian Cultural Center (Toronto, ON); Japan Society (New York,NY); The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC); Asian Arts &Cultural Center at Towson University (Maryland, MD); Portland State University (Portland,OR); The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater – REDCAT (Los Angeles, CA)

The California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA) for a six-city North American tour ofStrings and Serpents, a multi-cultural, multi-layered composition and performancecollaboration between two kotoists Ai Kajigano & Tsugumi Yamamoto, two pianists Andy
Milne & Benoit Delbecq, and an animator Saki Murotani.
Tour Dates: October 16 – 29, 2014
Tour Locations: David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (New York, NY); Juniata College(Huntingdon, PA); Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, PA); PianoForte Foundation(Chicago, IL); The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater – REDCAT (Los Angeles, CA);
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (Burlington, VT)

University Musical Society (Ann Arbor, MI) for a four-city U.S. tour of superposition byelectronic music and digital media artist Ryoji Ikeda.
Tour Dates: October 17 – November 8, 2014
Tour Locations: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); Walker Art Center(Minneapolis, MN); Power Center for the Performing Arts (Ann Arbor, MI); Royce Hall,UCLA (Los Angeles, CA)Collaboration Grant awards
Total projects: 5
Total funds allocated: $95,000
Grant amounts: $11,000 – $21,000

Hamilton College (Clinton, NY) for Reconstructing and Creating a new Japanese Silent Film
Experience: Benshi, Music, and Film, a collaboration with benshi-performer Ichiro Kataoka,
Japanese traditional instrument ensemble Otowa-za, and Canadian pianist GabrielThibaudeau.
Project Period: July 2014 – June 2015

Inta, Inc. (New York, NY) for The Station Project: Seeing and Being Seen, a series ofdurational performances by dancer-choreographer Eiko Otake in collaboration with visual arts
curator Harry Philbrick, photographer William Johnston, media artist Hana Iverson, andtheater artists Ben Grinsberg and Mark McCloughan.
Project Period: July 2014 – June 2015

Music From Japan, Inc. (New York, NY) for East Asian Vibrancy, a collaborative work
between sho-performer Mayumi Miyata and composer Ned Rothenberg in celebration of

Music From Japan’s 40th Anniversary.
Project Period: July 2014 – March 20157 Loaves, Inc. AKA GOH Productions (New York, NY) for Daguerreotype, Mirror with aMemory, a collaboration with choreographer Yoshiko Chuma, daguerreotypist Takashi Araiand video artist Kit Fitzgerald.
Project Period: July 2014 – June 2015

Performance Zone Inc. DBA The Field (New York, NY) for OQ, a new dance performanceby choreographer Kota Yamazaki in collaboration with architect collective SO-IL, composer
Masahiro Sugaya and lighting designer Kathy Kaufmann.
Project Period: August 2014 – April 2015

PAJ Advisory Committee Members (as of December 2013)
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Ms. Cathy Edwards (Director of Performance Programs, International Festival of Arts andIdeas)
Mr. Vallejo Gantner (Artistic Director, Performance Space 122)
Mr. Aaron Greenwald (Director, Duke Performances, Duke University)
Mr. Ben Johnson (Program Manager, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA)
Mr. Jordan Peimer (Vice President & Director of Programs, Skirball Cultural Center)
Ms. Tina Rasmussen (Director, Harbourfront Centre)
Mr. David Ravel (Director, Alverno Presents)