Kishi Bashi with the UGA Symphony Orchestra Oct. 6

Singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and Athens favorite Kishi Bashi has carved out a unique place for himself in America’s diverse sonic landscape. With a musical vocabulary drawing from indie pop, rock, beatboxing, vocal looping, and even classical violin, he defies easy categorization yet has achieved international appeal. 

Following its recent premiere with the St. Louis Symphony, his new orchestral show comes to Hodgson Concert Hall Thurs., Oct. 6 for an unforgettable night of music featuring songs from his catalogue and selections from EO9066, his powerful work about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The concert, featuring the UGA Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Mark Cedel, is a coproduction of UGA Presents and the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. 

Kishi Bashi is the pseudonym for violin virtuoso K Ishibashi. Kishi Bashi released his first full-length album 151a via Joyful Noise in 2012, which received high praise and the title of NPR's Best New Artist of The Year. Omoiyari is Kishi Bashi’s fourth album, and his most important yet. Many of the songs were initially inspired by history and oppression, and he deftly weaves tales of love, loss, and wanting to connect listeners to the past. Omoiyari is an uncompromising musical statement on the turbulent sociopolitical atmosphere of present-day America, lauded by NPR for its “profound empathy” and the New York Times for its “hand played yet exquisitely polished” qualities.

Over the last several years, K has traveled frequently to Montana and Wyoming to work on a “song film” version of Omoiyari about Japanese internment. It has been an emotional and creatively potent experience for him to spend time in the American West, speaking with internment camp incarcerees and descendants. Considering his own bicultural identity as the child of Japanese immigrants has come to influence Kishi Bashi’s approach to songwriting. 

Kishi Bashi’s performance is part of a UGA Presents slate of roots and indie concerts.