Biography
As a licensed teacher and active performer of the shakuhachi, Mr. Casano has performed on the documentary soundtrack, Aloha Akebono (KHON TV) and has given performances or guest lectures in Hawaii at the Japanese Consulate, Bishop Museum, Honolulu Academy of Arts, University of Hawaii at Manoa, East-West Center, Hawaii Theater, Chaminade University, and Kapiolani Community College. He has also performed in Osaka & Bisei, Japan; Albany, New York; Chicago Illinois and is a frequent presentor at the Japanese Studies Association’s Freeman Foundation Summer Institute. A recipient of the prestigious Japanese Ministry of Education Scholarship (Monbushou), Mr. Casano conducted extensive research on the modern history of the shakuhachi tradition at Osaka University and under the guidance of world-renowned scholar, Tsukitani Tsuneko, and the Osaka-based Shakuhachi Kenkyuukai of the Osaka University of Arts. Mr. Casano has been published in the international journal, “The World of Music” and has served on the faculty of the Hawaii Shakuhachi Festival 2006, Kauai Shakuhachi Festival 2014, and the Shakuhachi Festival of the Pacific 2017. His teachers include Robert Herr and Riley Lee in Hawaii and Ishikawa Toshimitsu in Japan. Mr. Casano was also lucky enough to work directly with the world-renowned Yokoyama Katsuya in mutil-workshops and in a private lesson in Bisei, Japan. In the last couple of years he has worked with Zenyoji Keisuke in Tokyo studying honkyoku from Fudaiji Temple and the Nezasaha style of playing.
In 2000, Mr. Casano received his Jun-Shihan license from Yokoyama Katusya and Ishikawa Toshimitsu and in 2016 he received his Shihan license and the name Taizen from Riley Lee. Mr. Casano released his first CD, The Voice of Bamboo-Take no Koe in the summer 2015.
Mr. Casano is on the piano faculty of the Punahou Music School has been a lecturer in Music Theory and Piano Pedagogy at the music department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Mr. Casano is a nationally certified teacher of music in piano through the Music Teachers National Association and is certified by the Royal Conservatory of Music in both Piano and Music Theory. He has served on the executive boards of the Hawaii Music Teachers Association and the Honolulu Piano Teachers Association. His principle teachers of piano were Lisa Kim, Morton Estrin, Rose Tanner, Dolores Johnson (piano pedagogy), and Frank Iogha. He has also had special coaching sessions with David Breitman, Igor Kipnis, Eugenia Tsarov, Gregory Partain, Sanford Margolis, and Martin Canin. Mr. Casano has certificates in piano performance and piano pedagogy from the Royal Conservatory of Music and recieved his BM in Piano and Music Education from the Crane School of Music (SUNY, Potsdam) and graduate degrees in Ethnomusicology (MA) and Music Librarianship (MLISc) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.