Often, the quirks of a musician are just as provocative as his performance. Fumito Nunoya, a renowned marimba player who has solos with the Boston Conservatory Orchestra and Houston Symphony to his credit, is one such musician whose stage persona demands a review of its own.
Fumito Nunoya, accompanied by Eliko Akahori, performed the marimba in Jewett Auditorium last Saturday.
For one, Nunoya is chic and composed. His hair is closely cropped and slightly gelled; he sports a tempered school boy smirk that lends the 29-year-old a youthful spright that is unknown to the generally stiff classical musician.
When Nunoya performed last Saturday at the Jewett Auditorium, he strutted to the center of the stage in russet patterned pants, flared at the ends, and a fitted, black-collar shirt, then promptly gave a precise and graceful bow. At that point in time, one could have expected the beginning of a modest runway show, not a solo marimba performance.
But Nunoya is full of surprises.
Even with his music, he takes his audience through a dark and quiet path, then with the tug of a few notes, veers them into different musical alley that is delightfully vertiginous with quick tempos and flying staccatos. Sometimes it is the other way around. He moves like the day from light to dark, from songs of greeting to songs of lament and from songs of dance to those of farewell.
With two mallets clutched in each hand, Nunoya began with an ethereal composition by Japanese marimba player, Keiko Abe, whose notes seemed to have floated out of the opening credits of a Haruki Murakami film. If the listener were a synaesthete and could have seen the notes transpire with each vibration, he no doubt would have found them taking on the rich, undulating colors of a mescaline-induced experience.
This "Nunoyan effect" confirms that music is one of the most ineffable arts. There is no concrete way to explain why the vibrations from the marimba, generally considered a secondary percussion instrument, should suddenly demand our tears.
It is easy, given the intense agility of Nunoya's performance, to forget the accompanying pianist, Eli-ko Akahori, behind the act. Akahori, who has previously performed for the the Japanese Emperor's Family, likewise embued the stage with a fusion of intensity and spright.
Nunoya will next perform at The Center for Arts in Natick (14 Summer St., Natick) on Sunday, April 27. His latest CD, "Red Dragonfly," is a dynamic compilation of Baroque, contemporary, and traditional Asian folk songs.