Internationally acclaimed pianist and composer
Yoko Miwa
named a Rising Star Pianist in the
2022 & 2023 DownBeat Critics Poll
and has the pure spirit that is necessary for great art. We love her
musical gifts and her beautiful spirit as well.” – Ahmad Jamal
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“Miwa is a virtuoso pianist with dazzling technique always in the
service of interaction and exchange of ideas.”
– Donald Elfman, NYC Jazz Record
For more than a decade Miwa’s trio has played regularly at major jazz clubs in their home city of Boston, as well as venues around the world. A favorite of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Miwa was chosen to play on “Marian McPartland & Friends,” part of the Coca-Cola Generations in Jazz Festival. She was also chosen to perform at Lincoln Center’s annual Jazz and Leadership Workshop for The National Urban League’s Youth Summit. Miwa also appears regularly at New York’s famed Blue Note Jazz Club as well as Birdland and has performed and/or recorded with a wide range of jazz greats including Sheila Jordan, Slide Hampton, Arturo Sandoval, George Garzone, Jon Faddis, Jerry Bergonzi, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Kevin Mahogany, John Lockwood, Dominique Eade, and Johnathan Blake among others. In 2018 she performed on the main stage at the Atlanta Jazz Festival and the Litchfield Jazz Festival, where her trio drew the largest audience of any act. She is a Yamaha Pianos Artist, JVC Victor Entertainment and Ubuntu Music recording artist, 10X nominated and 2019 Winner in the Boston Music Awards as Jazz Artist of the Year, and Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll winner.
Miwa’s story of becoming a jazz musician is full of serendipity and happy twists of fate. In the late 1990s the classically-trained artist auditioned for Berklee College of Music on a lark and ended up winning a full scholarship. She arrived at the school from her homeland of Japan in 1997, intending to stay for a year. In 2022, she’s still in Boston, enriching the city’s musical life and serving as one of the most popular professors in the Berklee piano department.
A native of Kobe, Japan, Miwa didn’t pursue an interest in jazz until she met and studied with Minoru Ozone, a popular television organist and nightclub owner who is the father of pianist Makoto Ozone. Miwa worked at Ozone’s club and as an accompanist and piano instructor at his music school until the great Kobe earthquake of 1995 destroyed both facilities. Then, while continuing to take private lessons from Minoru Ozone, she also pursued musical studies at the Koyo Conservatory in Kobe. From there she won first prize in a scholarship competition to attend Berklee. Miwa quickly began playing with a host of talented students and teachers, and she formed a strong bond with vocal great Kevin Mahogany, who chose the pianist to serve as accompanist in his classes and on his gigs.
Will Slater, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, is an in-demand bassist, performing regularly in New York and New England. In addition to teaching students of all levels, Will has performed with Jeff “Tain” Watts, George Garzone, Gary Thomas, Peter Bernstein and many more. He has performed at such venues as the Blue Note, Birdland, Smalls, Minton’s, Mezzrow, Keystone Korner, Scullers, the Regatta Bar, Wally’s, Jordan Hall, the Ryles Jazz Cub and the Lily Pad. He has recorded with Jerry Bergonzi, the Kim Thompson Quartet, the Phil Grenadier trio, and the Joe Delaney trio. In 2009 he was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk competition. Will has also appeared internationally at the Panama, Romania, and Aspen jazz festivals and has toured in France, Italy, Japan, Colombia, and Eastern Europe in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.
Scott has recorded at the world-famous NYC studio Powerstation (Avatar) and also at the legendary Sear Sound with James Farber as the engineer. He has toured throughout the United States and internationally. Performed with Sheila Jordan, George Garzone, Larry Grenadier, Jerry Bergonzi, Joanne Brackeen as well as many more. He currently holds the drum chair in the critically acclaimed Yoko Miwa Trio and for more than a decade was the drummer for piano legend Harvey Diamond in his trio, as well as being on vocal with Hannah Rose Diamond in her quartet. Scott is also an active Jazz Educator and conducts private lessons at his drum studio as well as online. Scott is an endorser for Canopus Drum.
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