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Meg Okura
The New York Times called her music "grandiloquent beauty that transitions easily from grooves to big cascades to buoyant swing"(Giovanni Russonello), Meg Okura is a jazz composer and violinist and the founder of the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble based in New York. In the last decade, she has won over two dozen prizes and honors, including the 2023 ISJAC Fundamental Freedom Commission and International Women In Music’s 2023 Portland Jazz Composer’s Prize.
Over the last 18 years, her ensembles have graced iconic venues in New York, such as Birdland Jazz Club, Blue Note, Dizzy’s, and Knitting Factory, as well as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., K.L. Jazz Festival in Malaysia, and other performances in the U.S., Israel, Serbia, and Japan.
As a violinist, she has performed and recorded with many jazz greats, including Lee Konitz, Steve Swallow, and Tom Harrell. She also toured Japan and the U.S. with the late Michael Brecker’s Quindectet with musical director Gil Goldstein. Okura has contributed to over 100 projects, including film, TV, live videos, and albums with artists like David Bowie, Diane Reeves, JC Sanford, Erica Seguine, and Emilio Solla y La Inestable de Brooklyn, earning her a Grammy nomination as a violinist. In 2018, she placed No. 6 Jazz Violinist in the International Critics Polls.
Native of Tokyo, Okura toured Asia as a soloist and concertmaster for the Asian Youth Orchestra in her teenage years. Her journey in the U.S. began with a solo concerto debut at the Kennedy Center in 1992 with Alexander Schneider's New York String Orchestra. She earned B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied the violin with Lewis Kaplan and Masao Kawasaki, chamber music with Robert Mann, Samuel Sanders, and Seymour Lipkin, and was the concertmaster of the Juilliard Opera Orchestra. She has performed at esteemed venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center, Barbican Hall in the U.K., Village Vanguard, Blue Note Tokyo, Hollywood Bowl, and numerous international jazz and Jewish music festivals.
Meg Okura has seven albums under her name. Her duo album with Kevin Hays is out this May from Adhyaropa Records, and her 10-piece Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble’s highly anticipated fifth album, featuring Randy Brecker is in the works. Okura is also the musical director and arranger of the Sakamoto Tribute Ensemble, an ensemble dedicated to performing works by Ryuichi Sakamoto, an iconic composer.
Her classical chamber composition “Phantasmagoria” will be performed at LunART Festival on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 pm on the Hamel Music Center - Collins Hall in Madison, Wisconsin, as the winner of the call for scores competition.
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Erica Seguine: The New Day Bends Light
by Angelo Leonardi
Impegnandosi nel ruolo di produttore, Darcy James Argue dà particolare considerazione al debutto discografico di quest'ensemble, fondato nel 2011 a New York dalle compositrici Erica Seguine e Shon Baker. La prima è anche arrangiatrice e guida dell'orchestra, la seconda entra nel cast come sassofonista. Dopo varie esibizioni in locali chiave della Big Apple, le due leader hanno selezionato sette composizioni originali dal loro repertorio, incidendole con un ampio organico comprendente talentuosi solisti della metropoli. Alcuni di essi ...
read moreEunmi Lee: Introspection
by Jack Bowers
Eunmi Lee is a quick learner. The South Korean-born pianist, who now makes her home in New York City, did not become acquainted with or interested in jazz until a friend introduced her to the GRP Records catalogue. That was more than a year after she had received a degree in contemporary piano from the Seoul Institute for the Arts, in 2005. Eager to learn more, Lee came to California in 2007 to take part in an open house at ...
read moreEunmi Lee: Introspection
by Dan McClenaghan
Korean-born, New York-based pianist and composer Eunmi Lee opens her debut record, Introspection with her original composition, “Gimmick." And, if there is a gimmick, it sounds as if it might be her strong compositional voice and her way with an arrangement. The tune features Alan Ferber on trombone, saxophonist John Ellis, a guitar, bass and drums rhythm section, and Lee in the piano chair. In spite of the album's title, this opener is a bright, sassy roller. Maybe the gimmick ...
read moreErica Seguine/Shon Baker Orchestra: The New Day Bends Light
by Jack Bowers
The New Day Bends Light, the debut recording by the twelve-year-old Erica Seguine/Shon Baker Orchestra, is interesting on a number of levels, not the least of which is emotional. The leaders and their twenty-one piece ensemble are clearly committed to the music and do their best to breathe life into each of the album's seven numbers, three of which were written by Seguine, three by Baker and the other ("Ose Shalom") by Nurit Hirsh. Aside from that, there is the ...
read moreAndrew Green: Dime Dancing: The Music Of Steely Dan
by Mark Sullivan
It is not hard to imagine jazz versions of Steely Dan songs, as they are rich in knotty harmonies and dark lyrics that belie their mainstream pop success. But you would probably have to be guitarist Andrew Green to imagine them arranged for chamber ensembles dominated by woodwinds and strings (as well as vocalist Miriam Waks and Green's guitar). Ironically, Green's dramatic departure from the iconic recordings grew out of his love for them: he was convinced that no rock ...
read moreA Conversation with Violinist Meg Okura
by Lorens Chuno
Meg Okura is a distinguished violinist/composer who has been decorated with several awards. Her latest album, Ima Ima, is a collection of well thought out and very well executed compositions that stem out of her role as a mother. Join Meg and I as we talk about composing, motherhood, David Bowie, and other somewhat related things. Ima Ima features Meg Okura on violin, vocals, and erhu; Tom Harrell on trumpet; Sam Newsome on soprano sax; Sam Sadigursky ...
read moreMeg Okura: IMA IMA
by Dan Bilawsky
Heritage isn't merely defined by blood and DNA. It's about who we are, who we choose to become, and what we take from the past to bring to our individual present and presence. So says this most personal of albums from Meg Okura & The Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble. “Ima"--the Hebrew word for “mother" and a Japanese word for “now"--stands as a three-letter summation of Okura's being with its cross-language connections and meaning. It represents her ...
read moreAll About Jazz Top 10 Tracks: April 2018
Source:
All About Jazz
All About Jazz features a free song every day spanning all genres of jazz, and of the 30 tracks featured in April, these ten represent our personal favorites. We also included the top ten reader favorites as indicated by total listens. Musicians and record labels can submit full length MP3s for consideration here. Enjoy! EDITOR'S PICKS IMA IMA (feat. Tom Harrell) Meg Okura From: IMA IMA (feat. Tom Harrell) 06:10 Mysterious Maze ...
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“Ima, You Don’t Look Jewish,” A Three-year Old Said To Her Mother.
Source:
Lydia Liebman Promotions
On Mother’s Day, Meg Okura, who converted to Judaism four years ago, will release Ima Ima, featuring trumpeter Tom Harrell and guitarist Rez Abbasi. Ima Ima (mom in Hebrew and now in Japanese) will be her Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble's fourth album, showcasing extensive works composed since her pregnancy, for 10-piece chamber jazz ensemble. She sees this album as a musical platform for exploring her new Jewish faith, her Japanese heritage, her passion for jazz, and love for family. ...
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Meg Okura's Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble to Peform at St Paul's Chapel
Source:
All About Jazz
The Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble Meg Okura, violin and erhu Jun Kubo, flute Jennifer Vincent, cello Mamiko Kituara, piano Rich Stein, percussion Monday April 23, 2007 1 PM $2 Suggested Donation St Paul's Chapel (Broadway at Fulton Street) On Monday April 23rd Trinity Concerts will welcome Meg Okura and the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble into the intimate musical confines of ...
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Bandcamp Daily "There are some stunning moments on this set from the NPO Trio of violinist Meg Okura, saxophonist Sam Newsome, and pianist Jean-Michel Pilc. Their music is a balancing act between cohesion and chaos, allowing the music to fall into one of those states while still grasping tight to its counterpart. This sense of everything coming apart at the seams creates the most intoxicating tension as the balance of power shifts back and forth. The intensity is magnified by corresponding changes in influence, from avant-garde to classical to Yiddish to modern post-bop. Recorded at NYC’s The Stone back in 2016, the electricity of the live performance comes through strong, and the presence of this music is immense." (Dave Sumner) All About Jazz “From Asia to Africa and the Americas, and from classical to jazz—via the inspiration of electronic music—Okura sees beauty everywhere and translates it into her own exquisite idiom.” (Ian Patterson) New York Times
Primary Instrument
Violin
Location
New York City
Willing to teach
Advanced only
Clinic/Workshop Information
Meg Okura has conducted clinics and lecture concert programs for the past three years, creating unforgettable memories for over 10,000 students of all ages across the United States.
“Jazz Violin and Improvisation Workshop”
A program for students of all levels to learn the secrets of improvisation. The program will de-mystify the process of improvising by showing the basic methods for improvising, while students having a ton of fun
Photos
Concerts
Music
Seven Short Pieces: V. Shamaim
From: LingeringBy Meg Okura
Gimmick
From: IntrospectionBy Meg Okura
Mr. Weird
From: IntrospectionBy Meg Okura
Narcissism
From: IntrospectionBy Meg Okura
IMA IMA (feat. Tom Harrell)
From: IMA IMABy Meg Okura
Videos
Meg Okura
Location: New York City
Instrument: Violin
Born: August 9
Publicist: AMT Public Relations
