Kojiro Umezaki

BIO

Noted by The New York Times as a “virtuosic, deeply expressive shakuhachi player and composer” and the LA Times as one of the “better kept secrets of Southern California music,” Kojiro Umezaki (梅崎康二郎) continues to seek new musical homes for the shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute with centuries of history in Japan. His work with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2001 includes “Sing Me Home,” the Grammy-winning album on which he appears as performer, composer, and Associate Producer. His most recent album, “a distance, intertwined” (In a Circle Records), brings together five new works for shakuhachi and the mixed quartet Hub New Music.