DESCRIPTION:
Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble: Music of Ryuichi Sakamoto
Thursday, June 27, 2013
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Frieda and Roy Furman Stage

Meg Okura - violin, Helen Sung - piano, Anne Drummond - alto flute, Martin Wind - bass, Willard Dyson, drums.
Sharon Kaufman - camera, editing.

Queen of chamber-jazz Meg Okura presents the music of composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, re-imagining his classics from Yellow Magic Orchestra to the Academy award winning soundtrack, The Last Emperor. Described as "vibrant and sophisticated" by the New York Times, the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble mesmerizes the audience.
Meg Okura balances her roles as jazz violinist, composer, and erhu player. She has toured with jazz masters such as Michael Brecker, Steve Swallow, Lee Konitz, Tom Harrell, as well as Cirque du Soleil, and has performed as a soloist at venues from the Knitting Factory to Carnegie Hall to Madison Square Garden. Hailed by the New York Times as "vibrant" and "sophisticated," Okura has toured and released two albums with her own group, the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, which "successfully blends the musical cultures of East and West for a new and exciting direction in modern jazz expression," (Inside New York Magazine). Native of Tokyo, Meg Okura has toured all of Asia as the concertmaster and soloist with the Asian Youth Orchestra, and made her U.S. debut as a soloist with New York String Orchestra at Kennedy Center as a teenager. She earned her B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Juilliard School, and switched to jazz upon graduation. She has won numerous grants and awards as a composer, and her credits as violinist and erhu player appear on over fifty albums and soundtracks with various artists from David Bowie, Dianne Reeves to Lee Konitz.