For more than a decade, Marenglen Skendo has appeared as a visiting artist and scholar at Berklee College of Music in “Japanese Music and Instruments”, a course designed and taught by Berklee faculty member Allen LeVines. Mr. Skendo is an accomplished traditional Japanese musician, and though there are other professional Japanese musicians within New England and New York, Mr. Skendo’s expertise and versatility in both traditional and contemporary settings make him uniquely qualified to introduce the repertoire and possibilities of the shakuhachi to music students at Berklee College. His presentations and lectures always add greatly to students’ educational experience, and it is common for them to consider his classes as being the most significant of the semester. 

Allen LeVinnes Professor of Composition  Berklee College of Music
 

It was delight to have Geni conduct a workshop at our elementary school. The children were engaged and enthralled by the delightful melodies he played on his flute. He also played the ancient Japanese Shakuhachi and then accompanied some of the students as they played their recorders!

Tom Natola Quincy Public Schools


Geni has been coming to my Beginning Japanese classes at Wellesley College, and giving a workshop for a few years. Geni brings several different kinds of Shakuhachi, and talks about each instrument with its history.  He plays different music pieces with different Shakuhachi, and explains the unique Japanese musical note for Shakuhachi. He is also very generous about letting the students try playing with different Shakuhachi.  Every time he comes to my class, my students thoroughly enjoy listening to his music, and playing his Shakuhachi. 

Yoshimi Maeno Senior Lecturer in Japanese Wellesley College