Biography

Alcvin was born in Japan, attended school in the States, and now lives in the rainforests of BC, Canada. In high school, Alcvin first heard the sound of the horizontal Japanese bamboo flute (yokobue) in the Akira Kurosawa film, RAN, played by master Hiroyuki Koinuma and was deeply inspired to study shakuhachi. After studying Eastern Religions and Philosophy in University Alcvin returned to Japan to study shakuhachi for several years. Through his work with the shakuhachi, Alcvin has had the opportunity to travel through Asia, Australia, Europe, Canada and America learning about various cultures and arts. The shakuhachi continues to lead him to more adventures to fascinating and beautiful places and people through the playing and creation of music.

In 2001, he received his shihan (master) license from one of the great shakuhachi masters of Japan, the late Katsuya Yokoyama (founder of the International Shakuhachi Training Centre and brainchild of the World Shakuhachi Festivals) via one of his most exceptional students, Kaoru Kakizakai. Alcvin also studied jinashi shakuhachi playing intensively with Atsuya Okuda of the Zensabo since 2000. He is currently studying hitoyogri (ancestor of the modern shakuhachi) with Takeo Izumi in Kyoto.

In November of 2008, Alcvin received an honourary Dai Shihan license along with a new name, “Ryūzen” (Dragon Meditation) from another one of Japan’s most virtuosic players and teachers, Yoshinobu Taniguchi. Alcvin is the first Canadian, and one of only a handful of non-Japanese, to receive this esteemed honour.

Alcvin has also studied shakuhachi construction techniques with Shugetsu Yamaguchi, Murai Eigoro, Kinya Sogawa, Kobayashi Shomei, and John Kaizan Neptune and is currently, studying jiari shakuhachi construction under the legendary craftsman, Miura Ryuho in Akita Prefecture.  Alcvin produces finely crafted jinashi (hocchiku) zen flutes and shinobue. With an intimate knowledge of the koten honkyoku (traditional solo Zen-inspired pieces) and the structure of the flute, each of Alcvin’s flutes is made especially for honkyoku and musical playing. Ramos believes that honkyoku expresses and utilizes the total spirit-sound of the shakuhachi.

Alcvin also plays the Tsugaru Shamisen, and shinkin, three-stringed lutes, which adds a deeper dimension to his understanding and enjoyment of the folk music of Japan. He also studied biwa for a year with Yukio Tanaka, leading student of the late Satsuma Biwa master, Kinshi Tsuruta.

Alcvin is also the inventor of the otherworldly Tenkan, overtone flute which is a hybrid of the shakuhachi and didgeridoo.

Alcvin has taught and performed all over North America, Europe, and Japan and pursues an active solo as well as collaborative career and has shared the stage with many distinguished artists from around the world.

Every few years, Alcvin takes shakuhachi students to Japan for the Shakuhachi Roots Pilgrimage where they harvest bamboo for making shakuhachi and to visit sacred places around the country in order to deepen the understanding of the instrument.

Alcvin presently resides on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia where he teaches and makes bamboo flutes and Sunroot Pendants and jewellery.

“For me shakuhachi and bamboo are paths of transformation that elicits a metabolic expression and the conviction that music “should not be frozen or unchanging once it is completed but should be apprehended instead as a thing – or process – that evolves from past to present and from present to future.” Another way to express this process is a symbiotic relationship between time and space, and one’s immediate environment. Shakuhachi is my bridge to the world of music, with bamboo being the vessel of sound, and vibration which is a portal, a gateway into seeing deeper into oneself which opens doors to other physical and spiritual realms.” — Alcvin Ryūzen Ramos