BLUE NOTE & THE JAPAN FOUNDATION PRESENT: EAST MEETS WEST BRUNCH feat. MEG OKURA &MEG OKURA & THE PAN ASIAN CHAMBER JAZZ
Meg Okura & The Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, a New York-based jazz group, was founded in 2005 by composer/violinist Meg Okura, and has appeared in over 50 concerts and festivals in the U.S. and Asia. Hailed by the New York Times as "vibrant" and "sophisticated," Okura weaves together jazz, classical, and world music to create a modern jazz sound. The PACJE has released three albums to date: the self-titled debut album ("Best Album" finalist in the 2006 Independent Music Awards), Naima (2010), and Music of Ryuichi Sakamoto (2013). The ensemble is currently working on the next album "Ima Ima" with the expanded (10-piece) version of the ensemble which features trumpeter Tom Harrell and guitarist Rez Abbasi....
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BLUE NOTE & THE JAPAN FOUNDATION PRESENT: EAST MEETS WEST BRUNCH feat. MEG OKURA &MEG OKURA & THE PAN ASIAN CHAMBER JAZZ
Meg Okura & The Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, a New York-based jazz group, was founded in 2005 by composer/violinist Meg Okura, and has appeared in over 50 concerts and festivals in the U.S. and Asia. Hailed by the New York Times as "vibrant" and "sophisticated," Okura weaves together jazz, classical, and world music to create a modern jazz sound. The PACJE has released three albums to date: the self-titled debut album ("Best Album" finalist in the 2006 Independent Music Awards), Naima (2010), and Music of Ryuichi Sakamoto (2013). The ensemble is currently working on the next album "Ima Ima" with the expanded (10-piece) version of the ensemble which features trumpeter Tom Harrell and guitarist Rez Abbasi.
Meg Okura is a Japanese-American jazz composer and the founder of thePan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble. She has been one of the leading voices on the chamber jazz scene for the past decade. As a composer, she has received numerous grants and awards including the American Composer's Forum's Jerome Fund for New Music, Independent Music Awards, New Music USA Project Grant, and Meet the Composer, Metlife Creative Connections Grant. Meg started playing the piano and the violin at four in Japan and got into the prestigious Toho Gakuen School of Music's prep school at five. She became the pianist and organist at her local Evangelical church at six and started directing the church's children's choir at eight. She made her solo debut as a violinist at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan at fifteen and toured Asia as the concertmaster and soloist with the Asian Youth Orchestra. In 1992, she made her U.S. debut at Kennedy Center in Washington C.D. as a soloist with the New York String Orchestra under the baton of the late Alexander Schneider.
She then moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School, earning BM and MM degrees in violin performance, while still touring all throughout Japan between semesters as an evangelical-Christian violinist. Upon graduation, she, however, started pursuing jazz, which led to performing with Lee Konitz, Steve Swallow, Michael Brecker, Tom Harrell, Sam Newsome and others. As an improviser, Meg has worked with various artists from the band Pharaoh's Daughter, David Bowie, to Cirque du Soleil and has appeared on over 50 albums and soundtracks as a violinist, erhu player, and composer.
In 2016, Okura has performed 12 concerts with 10 different groups in one week during her residency at The STONE (New York, NY), including her 17-piece jazz ensemble, The J-Orchestra.
Website:
Meg Okura
Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble
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