Music

Luka Kawabata

Nikkei-Canadian artist, Luka Kawabata 川端ルカ has quickly established himself within Canadian opera. As a baritone and producer, he strives to push the boundaries of representation in opera through the creation of new works. Luka is a recent graduate of the Yulanda M Faris Young Artist Program with Vancouver Opera, the Digital Emerging Artist Residency (Manitoba […]

Kevin Takahide Lee

Yonsei, Kevin Takahide Lee is a firm believer that the arts must be interwoven with social needs. After graduating from UBC and UWO in opera and voice performance, he has been involved with productions focused on bringing attention to IBPOC stories. For over a decade Takahide-san has portrayed Japanese Canadian veteran Zennosuke Inouye with the […]

Bradley Kurushima

Prince Shima is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and third generation Japanese-Canadian based in Victoria BC. By the age of 12 he was writing and performing original compositions live. He has fronted several punk, hardcore and indie bands that have toured throughout North America. As early as 14 he started producing experimental music on a cassette 4-track. […]

Melisa Kamibayashi -Staples

Melisa trained in and performed taiko with an all women’s taiko group in Japan in the 90’s. She went on to participate in International taiko conferences in Los Angeles and Sacramento, and workshops with Grandmaster Seiichi Tanaka, KODO, GONNA, Burlington Taiko, Arashi Taiko and Kiyoshi Nagata. Former performer and Artistic Director of Oto-Wa Taiko, delivering […]

Daniel Akira Stadnicki

Daniel Akira Stadnicki is an award-winning, mixed Asian-Canadian drummer, scholar, and popular music educator based in Amiskwaciy Waskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta) with strong family ties to the Japanese community of Hamilton, Ontario. Specializing in adapted drum kit for a wide range of global folk, roots, and traditional artists—including Farhad Kosravi, Jaron Freeman-Fox, Spencer Murray, Dana Wylie, […]

Daniel Tamagi

With over a decade of experience under his belt, The FloWarrior has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s top fire and flow arts performers. Fusing his passion for dance, martial arts and music, he has created his own unique brand of ‘martial artistry’ through years of training and dedication to his craft. A world […]

Steve Oka

Oka is a Sansei, raised in southern Ontario from the 70s to mid 90s. He is honoured to work on the unceded, ancestral and traditional lands of the shíshálh (Sechelt) Nation and the Skwxwu7mesh Uxwumixw (Squamish Nation). Oka studied at Queens University in Kingston gaining a degree in Sociology. He furthered his education through the […]

Hiroki Tanaka

Hiroki Tanaka is a musician, artist and writer born in Toronto, Ontario. He grew in Toronto’s east end, in the area formerly known as “East York”. He attended Concordia University in Montreal to study Creative Writing and Music, where he would focus on poetry and songwriting. This is also where he initially met members of […]

Hitoshi Sugiyama

Born and raised in Japan, Hitoshi Sugiyama practiced and performed taiko and shinobue. During university, he started DJing and composing electronic music. In 2009, he moved to Canada and continued composing. He joined a local band and the soundtrack they created forThe Moustachewon awards at the 2017 Edmonton International Film Festival and the Las Vegas […]

Eiko Ishiwata

Eiko started professionally composing music for video games and film in 2002. In addition to strengths in composition she is a multi-instrumentalist who has fine-tuned her sound engineering by studying + teaching at the Art Institute of Vancouver, studied classical animation at Sheridan College and was a graduate of The Bishop Strachan School. Eiko received […]

Shion Skye Carter

Shion Skye Carter is a performing artist originally from Tajimi, Japan, and based in Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University. As a performer, she has interpreted the works of artists such as Vanessa Goodman/Action at a Distance, plastic orchid factory, and Yossi Berg […]

David Kai

David Kai grew up in Toronto as a Sansei attending the Centennial-Japanese United Church where he was highly involved in its music ministry. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto, the Humber College music program where he specialized in arranging and composing, and The Centre for Christian Studies. Commissioned as a diaconal minister […]

Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野

Nikkei-Canadian settler Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野 (they/them) is a queer, trans non-binary, interdisciplinary creator-performer based in Tkarón:to (Toronto). Heralded as “a force of nature” (Toronto Star) and “an artist with extraordinary things to say” (The Globe and Mail) Teiya comes from a background of over a decade of singing both traditional and contemporary operatic roles […]

Booming Tree Taiko

Booming Tree is a contemporary drum duo, founded by Gregory Hideo Shimizu and Twilla MacLeod in 2008. Known for their innovative combination of taiko, percussion and vocals, they have performed across North America, from New Orleans to Yellowknife, and from coast to coast in their unique duo format. Booming Tree’s work is firmly rooted in […]

Scott Kokichi Kusano

Kokichi began his performing career at the age of 5 as a member of the Toronto Suwa Daiko a cultural association located in Toronto. Subsequently, Kokichi was introduced again to Japanese music during high school after the death of his grandfather and introduction to the Buddhist Temple where he was re-united with Taiko in 1996 […]