NEW YORK — Japanese author Haruki Murakami will be honored this December in Manhattan with an evening of words and music. The Japan Society and The Town Hall are presenting The Murakami Mix Tape, a program that will feature readings from Murakami's books and performances by jazz pianist Jason Moran and other artists drawing from the many musical references in his work. Murakami himself is expected to offer opening remarks at the Dec. 11 event at The Town Hall, where he will receive the Japan Society Award, a prize that has previously gone to Yoko Ono, Akira Kurosawa and Hideki Matsui, among others.
"Haruki Murakami is one of the most singular authors on the planet," Japan Society President & CEO Joshua W. Walker said in a statement. "We are honored now to build a singular night to celebrate him in New York City."
Murakami, 76, is a perennial Nobel Prize contender whose novels include IQ84, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood, the latter named for a Beatles song. The event will pair readings with live music that echoes the literary worlds he has created, according to organizers.
Organizers describe The Murakami Mix Tape as a tribute to the cross-cultural appeal of his work, which blends themes of memory, dislocation and music. The Town Hall, a landmark venue on Manhattan's west side, hosts the program on December 11. The Japan Society has presented similar cultural-night events in New York in the past, highlighting Murakami's status as a global literary figure.
Murakami's work has long attracted attention beyond literature, with frequent discussion of jazz, rhythm and Western pop and classical music that appears in his fiction. The evening aims to showcase that musical resonance through readings and performances by Moran and other collaborators to be announced.