Hina Oikawa

Biography

Hina Oikawa is a saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and tanka poet born and raised in Japan, now based in Queens, NY. Her primary projects integrate the expressive rhythm of Japanese poetry with large-ensemble jazz composition. In addition to leading her own ensembles, she has performed in programs presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center and at venues including Blue Note Tokyo, Smalls, the Jazz Gallery, Drom, Symphony Space, and Ornithology jazz club, establishing herself as a distinctive voice in the city’s vibrant jazz scene.

As the leader of her own ensemble, the Hina Oikawa Short Songs Band, she presented her original project Short Songs at Culture Lab LIC in February 2025 — a program uniting Japanese poetic tradition and modern jazz expression.

A graduate of Queens College, City University of New York, where she received the Marvin Hamlisch Award for Outstanding Arranger, Oikawa continues to compose and perform across the U.S. and Japan, dedicated to building bridges between artistic disciplines and cultural identities.

Hina Oikawa is an endorsing artist for Boston Sax Shop

Awards

Honorable Mention in the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble Prize category of the International Alliance for Women in Music's (IAWM) 2026
Queens Arts Fund New Work recipient 2026
Marvin Hamlisch Award, Queens College 2023
Rotary International Scholarship 2021 – 2022
Saitama Prefecture Global Scholarship 2021
Seiko summer jazz camp 2018 “The Most Improved Student Award”