I'm Laonikos, a shakuhachi player based in London. I perform at concerts, festivals, hotels and restaurants, give talks, record parts for composers and lead workshops for schools across the UK.

Recent work includes Karl Jenkins' Requiem with the Fulham and Hammersmith Choral Society and a recording for the Japan Pavilion at London Design Biennale 2025.

WHAT I OFFER

LIVE PERFORMANCE

I play solo and with other musicians, from a short opening set to a full-length concert. My repertoire covers honkyoku (the solo pieces of the Zen Buddhist komusō monks), min'yō (Japanese folk songs), pop and anime, contemporary music and improvisation. The shakuhachi is a quiet, breathy instrument, so it works well in rooms where people are eating and talking as well as in a concert hall.

I have played at a large variety of venues, from Kuching Parliament in Malaysia to Helsinki Music Centre, from HYPER JAPAN 2025 in Manchester to a Japanese-themed tapas night at the Melia White Hotel.

Some choral and orchestral works have a written shakuhachi part, including Karl Jenkins' Requiem, which I played with the Fulham and Hammersmith Choral Society in December 2025. If your programme has a shakuhachi part, send me the score.

I also improvise outdoors with shakuhachi and a portable live electronics set-up. I have played in the rainforest biome at the Eden Project and with Sam Lee at Singing with the Nightingales in Sussex, and have a new outfit with Chris Bartholomew called DRUBA.

RECORDING FOR COMPOSERS

I record shakuhachi parts for composers, producers and sound designers. I trained in composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and have a sensitive approach to working with new music. I can advise on how to compose for shakuhachi effectively, and I have different sized flutes to cover many tunings.

In 2025 I recorded music by Midori Komachi for the Japan Pavilion at London Design Biennale, part of an installation by SEKISUI HOUSE - KUMA LAB curated by Clare Farrow. My own album, loess (Slow Tone Collages, 2022), was recorded outdoors on the banks of the River Lea over two years.

TALKS, LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS

I give talks and lecture-recitals about the shakuhachi: its history in Zen Buddhism, how it is played and how the music works, with live demonstrations throughout, previously I've delivered workshops and lectures at Royal Holloway, Sibelius Academy, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, among others. I write regularly for BAMBOO, the magazine of the European Shakuhachi Society, and sat on the Society's board from 2023 to 2025..

If you want to learn the instrument yourself, I teach individual shakuhachi lessons in London and online.

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

I have experience leading music workshops for schools, music hubs and community groups, including composition summer schools for young people at Purcell School, and a variety of settings. I attended an 80-hour CPD on workshop leading by Guildhall in 2012 and have lead music-making projects in education and community settings in the UK, Finland, Iceland and Malaysia among others since then.

PERFORMANCES

COMING UP

Sunday 4 October 2026	Japan Matsuri 2026, Trafalgar Square, London - together with the SOAS Min'yo Group
Saturday 10 October 2026	New River Studios, London - performing material from our new EP, DRUBA, with Chris Bartholomew [book tickets]
Saturday 1 April 2027	Breath & Resonance with Ligeti Quartet and Oskar McCarthy; a programme of contemporary works (including a new commission by Midori Komachi) for string quartet, shakuhachi and barotone

SELECTED PAST PERFORMANCES

December 2025	Karl Jenkins' Requiem, with the Fulham and Hammersmith Choral Society, St Gabriel's Church, Pimlico
November 2025	Opening act, HYPER JAPAN 2025, Manchester Central
July 2025	Golders Green Fellowship House, London, with LJ English and Sumie Kaneko
June 2025	Recording for the Japan Pavilion, London Design Biennale
August 2024	Honkyoku at Treemoot festival, south London
May 2023	Singing with the Nightingales, with Sam Lee, Sussex
May 2021 to 2024	Soundcamp Reveil, livestreams from the River Lea on International Dawn Chorus Day
July 2020	45-minute solo honkyoku concert, Making Tracks tour
October 2019	Solo performance in the rainforest biome, Eden Project
November 2019	Japanese-themed tapas night, Melia White Hotel
December 2017	Shakuhachi and electric guitar in a reworking of Beethoven's Violin Concerto with squib//box, SCRAM and Chihiro Ono, broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now

Earlier performances include the Barbican Centre, Kings Place and The Place in London, and Helsinki Music Centre. My music has been played on BBC Radio 3 and Resonance FM. The full list of performances goes back to 2006.

"The player's attention is steady and his stamina impressive."

Clive Bell, BAMBOO Magazine, reviewing loess

BOOKING

Email me at helllalao@laonikos.com. I usually reply within 1-2 working days.

It helps if you include:

• the date or dates
• the venue or location
• the type of event and audience
• how long you'd like me to play, or for a recording, the length and key of the part
• your budget