Happy New Year! | Upcoming Concerts

Very excited to share information about some upcoming activities for the new year. 

While I've already been up to various projects with others in the last few weeks, MY first show of the year is on January 19th and it's going to be something new for me. A little background information:

My parents, who are both from Tokyo, were members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for four and a half decades. I started playing (hating) the violin around age two with my father as my teacher, but that, unfortunately/fortunately, didn't last very long.

My form of rebellion growing up was to move away from classical music and go into jazz at first, then later, deep into traditional and contemporary Japanese music.

My musical and cultural worlds have been colliding in really spectacular ways over the years, more so now than ever before. I was asked by Ian Cleworth to be a guest with his wonderful group Taikoz, in a collaborative concert with the Sydney Symphony this coming February and I was honored with the challenge of arranging one of my pieces for full orchestra (to be played at the Sydney Opera House!)

I've been writing and writing and writing the last few months - for those of you who'd like to hear what I've come up with but can't make it to Sydney in late February, please come to Tenri Cultural Center in Manhattan on Friday, January 19th at 7:30pm.

Instead of an orchestra, I've got a string quartet (of sorts) of some bad-ass musicians to interpret this music. Very excited for this and hope to see you all there!