Select Past Performances

2024

May 1, 2024 at Glendale Community College at 7:30 om
Phoenix, AZ
MEGAFAUNA world premiere!

New composition for low clarinet choir and percussion
Plus Edmund Welles classics for expanded ensemble: “Va Larga” and “Moira the Warrior”

EVENT LINK

April 13, 2024 at 11:00 am in Philadelphia, PA
Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival

EVENT LINK

My debut performance at this popular cultural event in Philly presented by the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia.

2023

October 22, 2023

BIGFOOT REVELATION Album Release Concert
Old First Church in San Francisco
Complete Concert Info here and Program here

August 20, 2023

Final Pittsburgh Concert, Zen Shakuhachi & Meditation
at Iron City Rinzai / Stillpoint Zen Center

April 12, 2023

Earlham College – Concert in Lingle Recital Hall
7:00pm – free admission
Presented by the Institute for Education on Japan
Playlist of the full concert performance on YouTube HERE
Check out the program HERE

March 19, 2023

Heinz Memorial Chapel
University of Pittsburgh, South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
Playlist of Concert Videos on YouTube HERE
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmUu5bRSSFxehiV_V6rnD-IsY9vBqORIs
Information HERE

February 5, 2023

First Presbyterian Church of Edgewood in the Sanctuary
120 E. Swissvale Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15218
Playlist of Concert Videos on YouTube HERE

2022

June 14, 2022

The Ghost & The Wood Prophet
A Charley Patton Celebration, Solo Taimu Show
and Wood Prophets Album Release Concert

June 14, 2022 at 7pm – free admission
Starr-Gennett Building – 101 S 1st St, Richmond, IN 47374

Also celebrating this historic date in Richmond at the Starr-Gennett Building where the legendary Charley Patton recorded for the first time in 1929, 14 songs that forever changed music in the 20th century and beyond.

In addition to the solo concert, there will also be a short Charley Patton presentation illuminating his musicianship, the massive ripples of his influence and the connection between his Mississippi blues and gospel, and the Nature Blues and rustic flute spirituals performed by Master Boots. You might be surprised at the overlap. The program includes Boots’ original compositions in his syncretic “bamboo gospel” style, a traditional Zen meditation piece from feudal Japan and solo arrangements of Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix — artists in the extended lineage of Patton.

This show is also an “album release concert” for Boots’ debut Taimu quartet album, Wood Prophecy, available on bandcamp in eight editions (including a “1929 Edition” influenced by obsessive study of Patton’s recordings!) being released one per month starting on June 14, 2022. Although he is performing solo, the style and sound you will hear live is at the core of his new quartet, The Wood Prophets. A live performance debut of this 5-movement woodwind animism saga has yet to be scheduled. To be continued.

2021

11/14/2021 live solo concert – livestream only
Wood God Blues at Old First Church in San Francisco.

Full concert description here.

Wood God Blues plus classic, sacred Coltrane: New solo Taimu compositions plus duets with Kevin Chen
https://www.oldfirstconcerts.org/

04/07/2021 online mini-concert:
20 Years of Shakuhachi!
plus a Guest, a Toast and Book Project Announcement

2020

2019

August 7, 2019 — Birthday Show!

Center for New Music SF, CA
7:30 pm

Tickets Reserve
Venue Website
Facebook Event

Boots’ Birthday Bash: 1st set solo, 2nd set collaborative episodes with guests on flutes and reeds.

“Celebrating 16 years in the Bay and 45 years on Earth, lifelong woodwind innovator Cornelius Boots invites you to his Birthday Bash at C4NM in SF on his actual birthday. There will be heavy Zen bamboo flutes (solo shakuhachi and Taimu/bass shakuhachi), a proto-Taimu ensemble premiere plus special guests joining in on Boots’ compositions PLUS doughnuts, dark tea and darker beer.”

July 20, 2019 – The Stone @ The New School Glass Box Theater
w/ Aaron Novik and Friends Ensemble

July 20, 2019 – Zen Center of Philadelphia 12:00-1:30
Shakuhachi and Honkokyu lecture/mediation/performance

May 18, 2019 – Seventh Avenue Performances, San Francisco
Sacred Root album release show, solo with special guests

2018

November 2, 2018
Red Poppy Arthouse in San Francisco

September 21, 2018
Old First Church in San Francisco

Bamboo Rising Album Release Show!
Sunday – April 15, 2018 | 4PM San Francisco

Pacific Exchange (a concert from Thingamajigs)
Cornelius Boots (shakuhachi/Taimu), Sophia Shen (pipa), and Soo Yeon Lyuh (haegeum)
CB solo set, collective improvisation and moderated talk with artists to follow performance.
NOHspace (Theater of Yugen)
2840 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
Brown Paper Tickets Link
Facebook Event Link

2017

Berkeley Rose Labyrinth
Saturday, December 2, 2017 7:00 pm
Sound Ceremony, Deep Listening Concert: solos and duos with Laura Inserra & Cornelius Boots
2138 Cedar Street, Berkeley
http://www.samavesha.org/productions/rose-labyrinth-series/

Holy Flute album release concert with Bazantar

May 13, 2017 6:30pm St. Alban’s Episcopal Church Albany, CA
HOLY FLUTE album release concert featuring Cornelius Boots and Mark Deutsch.
NEW MUSIC MYSTICS CONCERT SERIES. And celebrating the release of Holy Flute, my new album, and the completion of Mark’s epic box set the PICASSO TUNINGS. Bazantar music.

2016

Japan “Bamboo Traveler” trip –October 2016, more photos and videos to come, meanwhile:

Japan Autumn 2016

October 22nd, 2-4pm
Gallery Cocoro, 10 minutes taxi ride from Karasuyama train station

October 29th, 4-5:30pm
At “SEKICHOU AN”
Link to location in Tokyo, Japan: (Mejiro and Ikebukuro stations are both walking distance) http://www.seibu-la.co.jp/mejiro-garden/access/
PDF Flier for this Event

Prague Festival 2016

June 2-6, 2016
Featured Artist at the International Shakuhachi Festival Prague

“bamboo, castles and alchemy”

Performances

June 2 – 7:30 PM Choshi in the Courtyard of HAMU, big group performance
June 2 – 8:00 PM Opening Concert, various soloists
June 5 – 2:00 PM Facing Modernity: 7-hole shakuhachi, okraulo, Taimu and improvisation
June 5 – 5:30 PM Czech Composers for Japanese Instruments
June 5 – 10:00 PM Jazz and Improvisation, various players
June 6 – 7:30 PM Large ensemble pieces for shakuhachi, big group

Lectures & Workshops

June 3 – 1:30 PM Mukyoku Workshop
June 4 – 11:00 AM “Hands-on course” for beginners
June 5 – 11:00 AM Shak Rock: Evil or Divine (Third of three lecturers)
June 6 – 5:30 PM Shakuhachi Shortbits “Deep Ro: The Texture of Suchness” (Second)

April 2016, Radio Appearance:

A radio interview on KWMR, West Marin Community Radio, the show is “Pieces of Peace” hosted by Susan Santiago. [the quality is lo-fi due to it being a compressed mp3, so, adjust your expectations accordingly~]

2015

lennygonzalez.com

October 22-25, 2015 Performances and presentation at the Science and Nonduality Conference in San Jose, CA “The Texture of Suchness: The Shakuhachi Flute of Zen Buddhism”

February 14, 2015 Cornelius Boots & Mark Deutsch: Solo Acoustic Wizards, “Heart & Blood.” Trinity Church, Berkeley, CA

2014

November 5, 2014 Cornelius Boots & Edmund Welles at University of Southern Oregon, “West Coast Bass Clarinet Takeover”

October 19, 2014 Shakuhachi Grandmaster Michael Chikuzen Gould with special guest Cornelius Shinzen Boots, Forte House in SF, 7pm

September 12, 2014 Edmund Welles at Center for New Music

September 3, 2014 University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) 1:00 Breath & Tone class 7:30 Solo Recital (shakuhachi, Taimu, bass clarinet)

September 6, 2014 University of Memphis Clarinet Day hosted by Dr. Roby

n Jones 9:00 Breath & Tone class 10:00 Artist Recital featuring Andre Dyachenko, Cornelius Boots and Dr. Robyn Jones

August 9, 2014, Mountain Hermit’s Secret Wisdom – CD Release Concert

July 30, 2014, Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Myth Program

2013

July 24-28, 2013
Edmund Welles performs ClarinetFest 2013 in Assisi, Italy and the 1st prize Composition Competition piece [“Invisible Orthodoxy” by C. Boots] premiered.

April 19, 2013 7-9pm “The Chapel” at First Universalist Unitarian Church of San Francisco 1187 Franklin St. (at Geary)
Shakuhachi Grandmaster Michael Chikuzen Gould in Concert (with guest Cornelius Shinzen Boots) This is a benefit concert featuring my shakuhachi teacher of 12 years. The benefit is for a fellow student and member of the shakuhachi community who will need a new kidney very soon. I will be joining in on the performance at some point during this concert, the details of which have yet to be determined. Donations for the Event (“Zen Seats” meaning you are geographically distant and might not attend the actual concert) are made here. To attend the concert: show up at the Chapel on 4/19! We might set up an Eventbrite for actual seat reservations, but there isn’t one yet.