Mamiko

Mamiko, born in Tokyo, began studying music at the age of eight. Soon she began to accompany choirs at her school. This experience aided her in her journey to becoming a professional musician. At the age of sixteen, she went to a private music school to study piano. Her piano teacher noticed her vocal quality immediately and suggested her to be a singer. "I still don't know why I was able to take his words seriously, but for some reason it made sense to me to focus on becoming a singer. He had convinced me" Mamiko recalls.

In 1988, she moved to Philadelphia to study Jazz Voice at Temple University. Eventually she emerged into the Philly music scene. After graduating in 1992 she gigged in Philly until her return to Tokyo in the fall of 1993. Back at home she performed extensively in the Tokyo metropolitan area between 1993 through 1998. In 1994 she won the grand prize at the Asakusa Jazz Festival Competition. She performed at the Manly Jazz Festival (Manly, Australia) in 1994 and 1996, and also on the radio program, "Session '95 (NHK FM Radio)."

In 1999, Mamiko moved to New York. She was a finalist at the Third Annual Jazzconnect Jazz Vocal Competition in 2002. Out of 197 singers from around the world, Mamiko took 3rd place. She said, "I was very surprised by the fact I made it that far... the final result didn't matter much to me because I was too happy that 2 great singers, Deborah Brown and Rebecca Paris, heard me and picked me as ..1 at the semi-finals. That was such a meaningful thing to a young singer like myself..."

She also toured with James McBride, an award-winning author of "The Color of Water" and composer, in his fall tour 2003. She visited 30 cities and 54 venues nationally with McBride Group. The tour was filmed by Comcast and was aired in New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

She has performed at the 55 Bar, Mahhatta Lounge, Blue Note New York, Dizzy's Club at JALC, Triad Theater, Chez Suzette, Cleopatra's Needle, Londel's, Kavehaz, Revival, The Kitano Hotel, The Ritz-Carlton New York, Third Floor Cafe, Cafe del'Artista, Birdland (Guest at Mark Murphy's stage), Chris's Cafe (Phila, PA), Philadelphia Public Library, Rodin Museum (Phila, PA), etc.

She performs regularly at NB Lounge on Mondays (with Tadataka Unno) and Thursdays (with Toru Dodo) from 7:30PM to 11PM. NB Lounge is located at 111 E56th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, New York, NY 10022.

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