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Zhoushu Ziporyn is a Roy Dickinson Welch Fellow PhD student at Princeton University, focusing on the philosophy of music, humor and time, in conjunction with music theory and cognitive zoo-cultural musicology. Winner of various awards, including the Nicola De Lorenzo Prize for Music Composition, the Eisner Music Award, The Matthew William Fisher Memorial Award, Alfred Hertz Traveling Scholarship and nominee of the Theatre Bay Area Award for his theatre work in San Francisco. Member of Phi Betta Kappa. Zhoushu has been taught the traditional art of Kyōgen under master Tōjiro Yamamoto, culminating in a hired performance with the Yamamoto family themselves at the National Nō Theater of Japan. After graduating UC Berkeley with a double-major BA (with high distinction) in both Music (Department Citation) and Philosophy, Zhoushu continues to learn from and perform with the Yamamoto company at various venues in Japan to the present, while also actively learning Gagaku music and the shō under the tutelage of gagaku players from the Imperial Household Agency. His philosophical essay on Zhuangzi’s “Butterfly Dream” was published (2017) in Brown University’s philosophy journal, A Priori, and his original post-modern cantata “Star Wars Palimpsest” was published (2018) in UC Berkeley’s Arts and Design journal. As a bicultural amphibian, spanning the SF Bay Area to Tokyo, his pieces have been premiered and recorded by many artists, including harpsichordist Davitt Moroney and guitarist Daisuke Suzuki. As a heartfelt continuation on the theme of “mutual symbiosis” from his government funded research at Tsukuba University in his childhood, he hopes to curate and develop a synergetic culture and discourse that sees the arts and the sciences as two dialoguing cultures, with special inspiration from the Japanese Kagura traditions.
Recognition & Awards
2019 Nominee of the Theatre Bay Area Award
2017 Roselyn Schneider Eisner Music Prize, University of California Berkeley
2017 Departmental Citation in Music and the Mathew William Fisher Memorial Award, University of California Berkeley
2017 B.A. With High Distinction, University of California Berkeley
2017 Completed honors thesis with Prof. Ken Ueno
2017 Member of Phi Beta Kappa
2016 Nicola De Lorenzo Prize in Music Composition, University of California Berkeley
2016 The Alfred Hertz Memorial Traveling Scholarship, University of California Berkeley
Publications
“Uncertainty, Detachment, and Zhuang Zhou’s Butterfly,” A Priori: The Brown Journal of Philosophy, vol. 2, April 2017.
“Star Wars Palimpsest (Multi-media post-modern cantata),” University of California Berkeley Arts and Design Initiative’s 2017 Undergraduate Arts + Design Publication, March 2018
“大きな力を導く小さな共生関係 (A Small Symbiotic Relationship That Yields Great Power, A Study of Plant Galls),” Tsukuba Journal Biology Vol.10 No.6, June 2011, ISSN 1347-7048.