Join us on Saturday, April 23 at Japanese restaurant Norikoh for our next Salon Concert “A Taste of Japan” featuring Japanese koto player Yoko Reikano Kimura, with works by Daron Aric Hagen and Yui Kitamura!. The program will be paired with delicious Japanese delicacies and drinks. Please RSVP to secure your spot!
Program:
Haru no Umi 春の海（宮城道雄作曲）
Andy Lin, erhu
Yoko Reikano Kimura, koto
Yui Kitamura:
Camellia
Japanese Song Medley
Shabondama (Soap Bubbles) - Yurikagono Uta (Cradle Song)- Furusato (Hometown)
Jaram Kim, violin
Keiko Tokunaga, violin
Andy Lin, viola
Nan-Cheng Chen, cello
Daron Aric Hagen: Koto Concerto: Genji
Yoko Reikano Kimura, koto
Keiko Tokunaga, violin
Jaram Kim, violin
Andy Lin, viola
Nan-Cheng Chen, cello
Musicians:
Yoko Reikano Kimura, Koto
Yoko Reikano Kimura is one of the most captivating artistic voices of Japanese koto and shamisen consistently praised by critics for her musical elegance and versatile repertoire. Based in New York and Japan, Kimura has concertized around the world including prestigious venues such as the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Israel Festival, The University of Cambridge, John F. Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum, Kabuki-za and various World Heritage Sites. Kimura has also performed Daron Hagen’s Koto Concerto: Genji with the Wintergreen Music Festival Orchestra conducted by Mei-Ann Chen and worked with renowned artists and organizations such as Heiner Goebbels, Wiener Solisten Trio, American Symphony Orchestra, and Basil Twist. Her awards include the First prize at the prestigious 10th Kenjun Memorial National Koto Competition, the Kyoto Aoyama Barocksaal Award, and a scholarship from the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan. Kimura is a founder of Duo YUMENO, with cellist Hikaru Tamaki. The highlights of the duo’s performances include the Chamber Music America National Conference, the National Cherry Blossom Festival and its 10th Anniversary Recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Kimura has studied with Kono Kameyama, a leading disciple of Kin’ichi Nakanoshima, Senko Yamabiko, a Living National Treasure and Akiko Nishigata. yokoreikanokimura.com
Keiko Tokunaga, violin
Winner of the 2020 GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance, violinist Keiko Tokunaga spends most of her days touring and performing globally as a soloist and chamber musician. Ms. Tokunaga has performed, toured, and recorded extensively with the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet from 2005 to 2019, and has been praised by the Strings Magazine for possessing a sound “with probing quality that is supple and airborne” and for her “pure, pellucid bow strokes”. Ms. Tokunaga has soloed with various orchestras including the Spanish National Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona I Nacional de Catalunya, and Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra. In 2016, Ms. Tokunaga released her debut album, Jewels, from New York Classics Label. She is currently on faculty at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College as well as Fordham University.
Jaram Kim, violin
A laureate of the 2000 Yehudi Menuhin International Young Violinists Competition, Jaram Kim made her debut at the age of six in GwangJu Namdo Art Concerto Hall. She has since sustained an intense solo career throughout the United States, S. America, Canada, Europe and Asia, performing numerous times at the world’s most prominent venues such as the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and National Opera Center. As an avid educator, Jaram has received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and has also been invited to teach at prestigious institutions such as the Conservatory in Durango, the Indiana University Summer String Academy, Columbia University, and Bard College Conservatory of Music Precollege.
In the Summer of 2021, Jaram co-founded Music Academy for Young Professionals and has recently recorded compositions for two violins, in collaboration with Tarn Travers, which will be released in the year 2022. This recording includes Wandering in New York, a piece by Paolo Marchettini dedicated to the artists.
Andy Lin, erhu
Taiwanese born violist and erhuist, Wei-Yang Andy Lin, is recognized as one of the most promising and the only active performers who specialized in both western and eastern instruments. Praised by The Strad “The great Molto adagio…..elicited some of the night’s most sensitive work, especially from Wei-Yang Andy Lin on viola.” and New York Times “Taiwanese-born violist Wei-Yang Andy Lin..…is also a virtuoso on the erhu, and he gave a brilliant performance.” Andy is the artistic director and co-founder of the New Asia Chamber Music Society and holds his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School and his Doctor’s degree in Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. He has won numerous competitions including Taiwan National Viola Competition and First Prize in the 2008 Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition. Read full bio. (www.andylinviola.com)
Nan-Cheng Chen, cello
Cellist Nan-Cheng Chen’s performance was recently described as “personable and smile-inducing” and “fine playing” by Washington Post and “Beautiful Tone” by New York Concert Reviews. As a chamber musician, Nan-Cheng is the executive director and co-founder of the New Asia Chamber Music Society (NACMS). An active soloist, Nan-Cheng Chen was featured in concert tours throughout North and South American, Europe and Asia, and has collaborated with Simon Bolivar Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Queens Symphony Orchestra, Metro-West Symphony, Quincy Symphony and Symphony Pro Musica, which received a review that states: “It was the kind of performance one might hear live only once a decade”, from Worcester Telegram and Gazette.
Read full bio.
*Special thanks to NorikoH for hosting the concert.