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Yukari

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Innovative musicality. Mesmerizing tone.

Japanese-American flutist and composer YUKARI is an emerging artist based in New York.



Her versatile flute performances and recordings range from jazz, pop, world music, chamber and orchestral music. Performance credits include engagements at top-notch NYC venues such as the Blue Note, Dizzie’s Club and Carnegie Hall as well as Jazz Festival in Japan. On recent projects, she has performed with Clarence Penn, Steve Cardenas, Jason Moran and Marc Copland to name a few. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards as a flutist, including Jazz Flute master class competition by NFA 2009 and outstanding musicianship awards from Berklee College of Music. She is active as a composer and an educator and has given jazz flute master classes and improvisation workshops in New York and Tokyo. YUKARI also has been featured in numerous print and television commercials and on radio programs.



Her life interests led her to Tokyo University for Foreign Studies, where she received a B.A. in Sociology and International Relations.

Upon graduation, YUKARI embarked on a novel approach to re-immerse herself in world music. She traveled to over 20 countries, including India, Indonesia and Turkey and many others in Europe, to gain experience playing with the local musicians and their music. During her visit to Puerto Rico, she performed with the Fania All Stars.



In 2000, YUKARI moved to New York City to study jazz. At Manhattan School of Music, she studied Jazz privately with Steve Willson, Dick Oatts, David Liebman, Jason Moran, and Greg Osby; classical flute with Patricia Spencer and Linda Chesis; composition with Reiko Fueting.

While attending school, she continued to perform internationally, leading her group “SPICEPOT.” Her first album, “Spectacular,” was released at the famed Tribeca Film Festival.

She has been working extensively on various projects such as the chamber music group led by the composer Michael Patterson, the avant-garde music trio “YUKARI’s Wonderland,” “Smoky and Tubes” with the guitarist Dan Lippel, and collaborations with the sculptor Alain Kirili and painter Mark Wiener.



Her composition credits include a yoga/meditation CD, “LUMINOUS,” which was released in 2009, and she was invited to perform at the Yoga Festival 2009 in Japan. Also, she composed music for a theater play entitled THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE NO PLACE directed by Jenn Ben Yakov, which was performed at the Stahlhouderij Theater in Amsterdam. YUKARI's 2nd album is about to be released by the inner circle music label in summer 2010. Yukari uses a Miyazawa flute.

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