| Brian Mitsuhiro Wong Brian Mitsuhiro Wong, San Francisco Bay Area native, continues a brilliant legacy of koto performance that spans three generations, and has roots in the internment camps of World War II. His mother, Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto, also a koto teacher and talented musician with the Murasaki Ensemble, taught Brian how to play the koto from the age of 4. At the age of 16, Brian attended a concert by Madame Kazue Sawai, the leading performer of modern koto music in Japan. Sawai Sensei's performance was not sedate as traditional koto performers, but dynamic and exciting, as her expertise and highly technical performance ranged from classical to modern. She rarely sat at the koto, and sometimes even danced around it. Wong was inspired by her performance, and decided to continue his studies on the koto from Sawai Sensei at an invitation from her to become an "uchi deshi" or live-in student at the Sawai Soukyokuin in Tokyo, Japan. At age 21, Wong won Japan's "Grand Prix" award for achieving the highest scores on his teaching exams for the Japanese Koto from the Sawai Soukyokuin Koto Conservatory in Tokyo, Japan in July 2006, surpassing many Japanese native candidates. (the koto is a 13-stringed zither-like instrument, with origins in China. One of the few traditional instruments that retains its original form from ancient times, it is also considered the national instrument of Japan) At his young age of 22, Wong's experience includes performances of jazz koto with the Cal State University East Bay at Hayward's Jazz Ensemble at the Montreaux, Umbria and Vienne Jazz Festivals in Europe, introducing new compositions written by himself and other young composers from UC Berkeley and Cal State University East Bay at Hayward, and assisting in teaching koto classes and offering private lessons. Wong has performed at Yoshi's Jazz Club as a featured artist with the Murasaki Ensemble, with the Cal State University East Bay at Hayward jazz ensembles, and also with the Oaktown Jazz Workshop. He has also performed in concert with koto masters Kazue Sawai and Hikaru Sawai. Wong says his life mentors are his mother and father. "My dad is a very wise man," says Brian. "He was once was a real estate agent, and always said the thing to remember when you're dealing with real estate is how to solve other people's problems. That's how I look at music. Music can help people solve their own problems, because it helps them to develop sensitivity towards their own feelings and emotions." O1C Performances: A New Face of Japanese Koto Music in America Koto Ensemble Lantana |
