Dr. Stan "Kakudo" Richardson will be back to Lyon College to perform a duo with Mrs. Fumiko Coburn, a koto artist.

Dr. Richardson received his Master’s teaching license and the shakuhachi name Kakudo from the renowned flutist Yoshio Kurahashi. Dr. Richardson has appeared at many notable area venues including the Myerson Symphony Center, Dallas Museum of Art, Kimbell Museum of Art, and the Crowe Collection of Asian Art. His recording Shakuhachi Meditation Music is one of the best selling recordings of solo shakuhachi music by a non -Japanese. In 1998 he was a featured performer and teacher at the World Shakuhachi Festival in Boulder, Colorado. He has performed on several occasions and recorded with the world famous Turtle Creek Chorale. In 2002 he performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the gala event featuring renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Dr. Richardson is currently head of Mujuan Shakuhachi Dojo, the Texas branch of the Kyoto based school founded by Yodo Kurahashi.

Mrs. Fumiko Coburn is from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. She is dedicated to sharing her love of traditional Japanese music played on the koto (Japanese harp), shamisen (Japanese banjo) and vocals. She has been playing koto over 30 years and she was certified as a koto teacher following completion of her training in the Miyagi-Sya of Ikuta-School of Koto in Japan. She was a member of Miyagi-Kai for over 20 years before moving to the United States in 2000.  She has been teaching koto in the Dallas and Fort as well as performing at many venues.

Ms Anne Akabori, author of The Gift of Life and chairperson of Visas for Life Foundation, will speak about Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese Consul General in Kaunus, Lithuania, in 1939 and 1940. Consul Sugihara was one of the most important rescuers of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust. An estimated 40,000 descendants of the Jewish refugees he saved are alive today because of his courageous actions. When WW II broke out, Consul Sugihara's office was flooded with visa requests from thousands of Jews fleeing German-occupied Poland. With the encouragement of his wife Yukiko, Sugihara issued Japanese transit visas to as many as 6,000 Polish Jews. Sugihara acted on his own without the official permission of his government. In issuing the visas, Sugihara felt that he was risking his career, his future and even his safety. After the war, he was let go from the diplomatic service, and rather than being honored for his humanitarian initiative, he spent his life in disgrace, never recognized by Japan during his lifetime.