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About Kaoru

SHORT BIO

Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe's work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with contemporary jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements. His signature skill of infusing Japanese culture with disparate styles on the shinobue flutes and taiko and other Japanese percussion has made him a much-in-demand collaborator working with such iconic artists as André 3000, Yo-Yo Ma, Wes Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran, Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, and Rhiannon Giddens. A trained jazz musician, he lived in Japan for a decade, during which time he became the first American to become a performer and artistic director of the iconic taiko drumming ensemble Kodo. In 2024, Watanabe launched Bloodlines Interwoven, a festival celebrating music and diaspora, presented by Baryshnikov Arts and funded by the Mellon Foundation.

LONG BIO

Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe's work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with contemporary jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements. His signature skill of infusing Japanese culture with disparate styles on the shinobue flutes and taiko and other Japanese percussion has made him a much-in-demand collaborator working with such iconic artists as André 3000, Wes Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran, Yo-Yo Ma, Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo and Rhiannon Giddens. In 2024, Watanabe launched Bloodlines Interwoven, a festival celebrating music and diaspora, presented by Baryshnikov Arts and funded by the Mellon Foundation. Featuring a broad range of groundbreaking musicians, from Mino Cinelu, Nasheet Waits, Adam O'Farrill, Alicia Hall Moran, Layale Chaker, Martha Redbone, Du Yun, and many more, the festival was a paradigm-shifting musical exploration of cultural roots, identity, history.

Born to Japanese parents who were long-time St Louis Symphony Orchestra members, Watanabe began training at a young age, eventually graduating from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied Black American jazz music. He then moved to Japan and became the first American to perform with and lead the internationally acclaimed taiko performing arts group Kodo. Acting as Artistic Director of Kodo's Earth Celebration festival, inviting such artists as Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo, and other masters of music from across the globe, he first saw how profound cross-cultural collaboration could be: people who don’t share a common language can find ways to unite in musical conversation when done with a sense of mutual respect, open-mindedness, an open heart, and a desire to connect. In 2008, after ten transformative years in Japan, which left him deeply connected to his heritage and the land from which his parents came, he left Kodo. He returned to New York to weave together all the musical threads of his experiences.

Watanabe’s compositions draw lines between distant points—Japan and America, ancient history and modern politics, and Eastern and Western music. Looking for the sympathetic vibrations that emerge, he weaves together Buddhist chants reimagined as antipolice brutality protests, WWII-era ZERO kamikaze fighter planes, the Sengoku Civil War era, and the culture wars of today’s America. In his work, Watanabe introduces sounds from a distant past to the 21st century, expressing the many layers of his identity and culture. Watanabe has performed his compositions with such artists as Kodo, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble, and The Sydney Symphony Orchestra, with whom he debuted two pieces for shinobue, voice, taiko and orchestra at the Sydney Symphony Hall.

He acted as an advisor and was a featured musician on Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, and he is featured on the Silkroad Ensemble’s Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home. He also created music for Martin Scorcese’s Silence and Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising, and perhaps his greatest accomplishment was providing the jazz flute stylings of the Pied Piper in Shrek 4ever After.

As an educator, Watanabe has taught courses at Princeton, Wesleyan, and Boston Conservatory and was an artist-in-residence at Loyola University. He has taught workshops across North and South America, Europe, and East and Southwest Asia.

Watanabe’s drums are provided by Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten, a mikoshi shrine and traditional instrument maker founded in 1861. His flutes are provided by Ranjo, a master craftsman based in Chiba Prefecture who makes instruments for many of the top musicians in Japan. One of the highest honors of Watanabe’s life is when Ranjo declared, “Watanabe possesses the greatest sound on the shinobue in the world.”

“I have long felt that Kaoru Watanabe has the greatest sound on the shinobue of any player in the world. ”
— Ranjo (master shinobue maker)
“Kaoru Watanabe: a rare musician who traverses the traditional music forms both East and West, classical and contemporary, predetermined and improvisational. His expertise in taiko drumming and bamboo flutes gives his music both force with exteme delicacy. His superb musicianship makes him a joy to create with. He enriches any musical situation with his unique perspective.”
— Jason Moran (Jazz Pianist, Blue Note Recording Artist)

Selected Activities

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

  • JO | HA | KYU four-part series featuring Arun Ramamurthy, Jay Gandhi, Sameer Gupta, Belinda Becker, Sheila Anzonier, Rogerio Boccato, Edward Perez, Fumi Tanakadate and Ryutaro Kaneko at Joe’s Pub, National Sawdust, Shapeshifter Lab in New York City, NY

  • Mirai No Rekishi Mark de Clive-Lowe, Yumi Kurosawa, Shing02, Tylana Enomoto, Brandon Eugene Owens, Tommaso Cappellato, Carlos Niño at Grand 

  • Kaoru Watanabe’s Néo featuring Semba Kiyohiko, Kojima Chieko, Nait Testsuro, Kakinuma Koji, Daniel Rosen and Fumi Tanakadate in Tokyo, Japan

2016

  • Workshops and Performances in Atibaia, Brazil

  • Simone Leigh’s The Waiting Room at the New Museum, New York City, NY 

  • Solo performance in Usina Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina

  • Solo Performance in Dubai, UAE

  • Trio with Fujimoto Yoshikazu (KODO) and Kojima Chieko (KODO) in Anchorage, AL

  • Performance and workshops with Mike Block, Hadi Eldebek and Balla Kayoute at Tanglewood Music, MA

  • Kenny Endo Ensemble US Tour

  • Kaoru Watanabe’s Néo featuring Yuta Sumiyoshi (KODO) Tour

  • Kaoru Watanabe group featuring Alicia Hall Moran, Jacob Garchik, Kenny Endo, Fumi Tanakadate at Joe’s Pub in New York, NY

2015

  • Kaoru Watanabe with Sakamoto Hiromichi, Yoshii Shogo and Daniel Rosen at Super Deluxe in Tokyo

  • Convergence Duo with Kenny Endo at Carolina Performing Arts in Chapel Hill, NC 

  • Kenny Endo Trip with Agatsuma Hiromitsu in Honolulu, HI

  • Imani Uzuri’s Conjure Woman with Marika Hughes, Trina Basu, Dana Lyn, Keith Doeling, Steven Herring, and Ann McCormick in New York

  • Marika Hughes’s group with Marvin Sewell and Keith Witty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY

2014

2013

  • Kaoru Watanabe Group at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival 

  • Workshops and Performances in Australia and New Zealand with Taikoz

  • Multiple collaborations with So Percussion in New York City

  • Solo Performance at Shofuso in Philadelphia

  • Adam Rudolph’s Go:Organic Orchestra featuring Yusef Lateef

  • Japan Foundation tour of Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica with Isaku Kageyama

  • Performance with Akihito Obama, Ralph Samuelson at Sumie Kaneko Asia Society Texas Center

  • Alicia Hall Moran’s Motown Project with Jason Moran, Steven Herring, Taurus Mateen, etc. at the Highline Ballroom

  • Maureen Fleming’s B Madonna at LaMama Theater in New York

2012

  • Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran’s Bleed at the Whitney Museum

  • Tamangoh’s Urban Tap featuring Herve Samb, Eric Chafer, Mathieu Desseigne Ravel, Aminata Crazystyle II and Jean De Boysson in France

  • Camille Brown and Imani Uzuri at Summerstage in NY

  • Trio with Adam Rudolph and Nakatani Tatsuya at the Stone NYC

  • Adam Rudolph’s Go Organic at the Jazz Gallery, NYC

  • Flutes of Hope Cathedral of St. John the Divine with Ralph Samuelson and Sumie Kaneko

  • Kenny Endo duo tour in California

  • Performances and workshops in Buenos Aires, Argentina

2011

  • Marcus Miller Presents: A Concert for Japanese Tsunami Relief featuring Robert Glasper, Q-Tip, Questlove, Angelique Kidjo, etc. at the Highliner Ballroom

  • Patrick Graham and Ben Grossman Canada tour

  • Guyane Music Festival with Tamango and Shoji Kameda in Saint-Laurent, French Guiana

  • Kaoru Watanabe with Kenny Endo, Ayako Watanabe and Haruka Watanabe in St. Louis

  • HIMIZUKAZE with Mana Hashimoto and Sadahiro Kakitani in New York

  • Semba Kiyohiko’s Karugamozu in Tokyo

2010

  • Japan Foundation Tour with Yumi Kurosawa in Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Trinidad

  • Tamangoh’s Urban Tap tour in France featuring Hassan Hakmoun, Kenny Muhammad, Vado Diamonde, Bonga Jean-Baptiste, Chikako Iwahori, etc

  • NANAKANAKA series at DROM with Charlie Hunter, Tamangoh, Adam Rudolph, Miles Okazaki and Kodo

  • Collaboration wit Hirokazu Kosaka and Kenny Endo at the Japanese American Theater in Los Angeles, CA

  • Steve Gorn at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, NY


2009

  • Khoomei-Taiko Esemble Tour in Mongolia and the US featuring Tserendorj, Khongorzul Ganbaatar, Shinetsog, Maruta Miki, Naito Tetsuro, Shoji Kameda, various venues in Mongolia and the US including the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and Symphony Space in New York

2008

  • Hirokazu Kosaka’s Mare Serenitatis  featuring Oguri, IKKYU Zen Archers, Tetsuya Nakamura and others at the JACCC in Los Angeles, CA

  • Japanese Foundation tour with Kenny Endo in Jamaica and Nicaragua

  • Tamangoh’s Urban Tap performances at the Kitchen and Drom in New York City, NY

2000-2007

  • KODO One Earth Tour in Asia, Europe, and the US. Approximately a total of eight months of every year on tour. Highlights include Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, Red Rocks Amphitheater, NY Summerstage, and Minamiza with Tamasaburo Bando. Albums released: Mondo Head (produced by Mickey Hart), Prism Rhythm, and One Earth Tour Special. 

2005-2007

1998 


Educational Activities 

Watanabe has taught at prestigious institutions such as Princeton University and Wesleyan University, emphasizing the importance of cultural understanding and expression. He has been a guest lecturer at Berklee College of Music since 2019 and has taught at the Silk Road Global Musician Workshop since 2015, among other notable teaching positions:

Education

  • Kodo Cultural Foundation - apprentice 1998-2000, Sado Island, Japan. Studies include various Japanese folk dances, song and drumming, tea ceremonies, farming, woodworking, Noh Theater, and Kyogen Theater.

  • Manhattan School of Music New York, NY, BA in Jazz Performance 1993-1997 

  • Interlochen Arts Academy 1991-1992