(Click here for a GOURMET GUITARS™ exclusive music video of Kiku Day with Henry Kaiser.)

Kiku Day is a ji-nashi shakuhachi (the ancient un-lacquered type of a Japanese bamboo flute) player from Denmark, although her roots are from America, Japan, Ireland and Russia. She began playing piano at the age of 3, and the flute from age 15. Between 1989 and 1999, she studied honkyoku, the traditional repertoire of the komusô monks, with Okuda Atsuya in Tokyo, during which time she also studied ji-nashi shakuhachi-making with Murai Eigorô.

Kiku has a BA in ethnomusicology from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) where she also studied improvisation with Clive Bell, and composition with Daniel Chua at King's College, London. She has recently completed her MFA in Music Perforance and Literature at Mills College, Oakland, Califronia, where she studied with Fred Frith, Jon Raskin, Joëlle Léandre and Anne LeBaron.

Kiku brings the ancient
shakuhachi into the contemporary music world, focusing on its unique timbre and complex sounds. She plays the traditional repertoire for shakuhachi, improvises, plays pre-composed music, and composes for this unique instrument.