Award winning jazz composer Asuka Kakitani is fast becoming a notable presence on the big band scene. Her music has been performed internationally, including such events and venues as Fairbanks Summer Art Festival in Alaska, Merkin Concert Hall in New York, and the 2006 and 2007 IAJE Conferences. Asuka’s compositions have been recorded by Boston’s Jazz Revelation Records and by the Japanese big band, Global Jazz Orchestra, and her scores have been sought after for inclusion in college performance libraries.
Most recently, Asuka was awarded the BMI Foundation’s seventh annual Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize for 2006, adjudicated by jazz luminaries Joe Lovano, Robin Eubanks, and Dan Morgenstern. Along with the award, Asuka received the prestigious Manny Albam Commission to compose a new work for large jazz ensemble, which was premiered at the 2007 BMI annual showcase concert in New York.
Asuka was born in Osaka, Japan, and started to play piano at age five. After graduating from Kyoto Conservatory, she was awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in 2002, where she studied jazz composition with Greg Hopkins, Ted Pease and Ray Santisi. Asuka was awarded the Carla Bley Award prior to graduating with honors in 2004, and relocated to Brooklyn, NY, where she has lived for three years. It is there that she continues to work on her compositions, saying, “I want my music to adequately express the way I see the world.”
You have surely heard about the tragic death of Neda - a brave young woman who was murdered in Iran just for peacefully protesting with her father on the streets of Teheran.
Hello Asuka Kakitani Jazz Orc.. Thank you for being a positive force in this world. Another positive force is music.
Music has so much positive power that it can bring different cultures together. Please feel free to contact me at any time. I also hope you will make many new contacts on this page.
あすかさんへ So great to hear from you. Just listening to some of your beautiful music. Of course I remember you at Berklee. I saw/heard you at IAJE in Jan 2007 too. It's really wonderful that you're doing so well in NY. I'm so happy for you. The music sounds great. And the band is killing. Do you have a CD? I didn't see anything about one on your website. I'd love to play some of these tunes for my Jazz Comp 2 classes. Keep in touch - put me on your gig email list. I get down there a few times every year. Thanks for the shout... ~~bp
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