Michael Andrew Doherty is a shakuhachi player/craftsman, composer, and percussionist, who works at the intersections of traditional shakuhachi music performance, ritual art, visual art, writing, meditation, epistemology, and silence. His creative studio, Blue Cloud Mountain, 青雲山, is on the side of a mountain outside of Palmer Lake, Colorado. Michael has studied shakuhachi with many foremost masters of the shakuhachi, but has spent the most time with Marco Lienard (NYC), Kiku Day (Denmark) and Michael Gould (Wyoming).

Artistically, Michael is interested in creating a doorway, thinning the veil to a liminal space or “non-ordinary reality”, for the listener or viewer. In this way his art can be seen as both a ritual tool as well as a musical piece or painting. Having been heavily influenced by the American Modernists, and John Cage in particularly, most of his art is related to silence in some way, and is informed also by nearly 30 years of meditative experience and with the philosophies of Zen and Tao.

You will also find music to listen too, shakuhachi for sale, information concerning lessons, ink/brush paintings for sale, poetry, and other randomness.

May you be well, happy and peaceful.

-Michael

Current Projects:

Recording and Interview for Pikes Peak Library District’s Artists of the Knight series

Recording album(s) for digital release in 2020/2021

New 3d art/ritual art series: Spirit Catchers (image)

Connections

2020

Shakuhachi / Music

Artists of the Knight:

Live performance video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQa2pXbPVFU&ab_channel=PPLDTV

Interview: https://youtu.be/ZqO2S5XwRd0

Cultivating the Empty Field (2020) (album for solo shakuhachi): https://michaelandrewdoherty.bandcamp.com/album/cultivating-the-empty-field

Shakuhachi no Oto – Remastered (album for solo shakuhachi) Released December 2020. Release of perviously recorded material 2012-1014: https://michaelandrewdoherty.bandcamp.com/album/shakuhachi-no-oto

Visual Art

Manitou Art Center Studio Artist Show, Manitou Art Center, December

Manitou Made virtual marketplace (December): https://manitoumade.com/shop/art/painting/michael-doherty/

Society6 Profile (art and masks): https://society6.com/bluecloudmountain

Etsy Profile: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueCloudMountain

2019

Manitou Art Center Board Member / Vice President, 2018-2019: https://www.manitouartcenter.org/

Knights of Columbus Hall | By the Community, For the Community, Vision Committee Co-Chair / Facility Manager, 2018-2019 (facility is not related to the organization “Knights of Columbus”)

Shakuhachi Camp of the Rockies, scholarship recipient.

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2017

Analysis of M.A.Doherty composition for shakuhchi, For Flowing Water: Mimesis stories: composing new nature music for the shakuhachi, by Joseph Browning. Published in Ethnomusicology Forum: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17411912.2017.1350113

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