Biography
Shakuhachi, Taimu (bass shakuhachi) & Composition
“exuberant … a natural anxiety demolisher” (Paste Magazine)
“far left of center—beyond category” (Ari Herstand, author of How to Make It in the New Music Business)
Founder/composer of Black Earth Shakuhachi School, Cornelius Boots has forged his own eclectic style as a professional woodwind performer since 1989. He is a three-time graduate of Jacobs School of Music (BM Classical Clarinet ’97, BS Audio Recording ’97, MM Jazz Studies ’99) and licensed shihan (master) in the dynamic shakuhachi lineage of Watazumido. First Prize winner of the 2013 International Clarinet Composition Competition, Boots has also received commissions and awards from Chamber Music America, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Areon Flutes, International Songwriting Competition and Meet the Composer and performed at concerts and festivals in Montreux, Chicago, Assisi, Prague, Tokyo, Karasuyama, and Quebec.
In 2018, he was a finalist in the World Shakuhachi Competition, a featured performer for Sony PlayStation’s E3 press conference (LA) and a featured performer/lecturer at both the World Bamboo Congress (Xalapa, Mexico) and the World Shakuhachi Festival (London). In 2019, Boots started up the Heavy Roots Shakuhachi Ensemble, the world’s first bass shakuhachi group, debuting at SF Music Day. As a series curator at the Center for New Music in San Francisco, Boots will be collaborating with other woodwind innovators in 2020 and 2021.
Boots’ experience as a jazz saxophonist, orchestral clarinetist, funk bandleader and founder/composer of the renowned bass clarinet quartet Edmund Welles (1999-2015) has made him a sought after composer and collaborator for bold woodwind soloists, rock and chamber groups as he continues to create new repertoire for his instruments. He has written 33 original compositions for teaching, performance and meditation purposes on bigger, lower Taimu flutes and has featured these compositions on seven albums: Sabbaticus Rex (2009), Mukyoku: New Pieces for Taimu (2010), Sabbaticus Rex II (2012), Mountain Hermit’s Secret Wisdom (2013) , Holy Flute (2017), Bamboo Rising (2018), and Sacred Root (2019).
Cornelius’ compositions or performances have been featured in the films Cicada Princess, Visions of Mustang, and Beard Club. He has presented classes at San Francisco Conservatory, Cal Arts, and UCLA, and has been teaching privately since 1997.
Boots resides in Forest Knolls in Marin County, CA and is currently earning his Master of Divinity in Buddhist Ministry from Buddha Dharma University’s Zen Seminary. In 2012 he was given the professional shakuhachi name Shinzen, 深禅, meaning “depth Zen.” Cornelius’ extensive and diverse list of musical influences prominently features Ronnie James Dio, Eric Dolphy, Pink Floyd, Funkadelic, Fishbone and Etta James. Cornelius is a member /supporter of the Center for New Music, the International Shakuhachi Society, Chamber Music America, InterMusic SF and Save the Redwoods.
Cornelius is endorsed by Vandoren and affiliated with Mujitsu Shakuhachi and Chikuzen Studios.
“I have never so clearly felt the internal power of unamplified sound. Cornelius’ flutes are a revelation of the inner life of breath and an antidote to a world gone mad and breathless.”
–Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Faun Fables, Idiot Flesh)
“I felt the spectacular nature and the universe from your playing and I was able to know a Japan that I haven’t known. I felt the power that clears the human mind in your music.”
–Sou Natsukawa, Sakurai Japanese Tea Experience at Omotesando, Tokyo