Ishigure, Marc, Kerr, and Hutchison

Masayo Ishigure (koto, shamisen)

Marc (shamisen)

Tomoko Kerr (shamisen)

Kenneth Hutchison (shamisen)

About the Musicians

Masayo Ishigure began playing the koto and jiuta shamisen at the age of five in Gifu, Japan and has created an extensive multi-faceted career that continues to stretch the limits of the koto while maintaining a strong grasp of the tradition. In 2005, Masayo Ishigure was a recording artist for the Grammy Award-Winning soundtrack for the movie “Memoirs of a Geisha” by John Williams alongside Yitzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and others. In 2001, she released her own solo CD entitled “Grace”. Ishigure has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall-Weill Recital Hall, BAM, Merkin Hall, Asia Society, Japan Society, The Metropolitan Museum, Symphony Space and has been invited to perform at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and the Smithsonian Institute.

Marc has been studying shamisen with Masayo Ishigure for almost 8 years. He has performed at the Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Festival, Kiku Festival at the NY Botanical Garden, the NY Times Travel Expo, has appeared five times at the Moon Viewing Festival at Hammond Museum, as well as the Cherry Blossom festivals at SUNY Stony Brook and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Sakura Matsuri. Marc is also a guitarist and composer, and holds a degree in Music Theory and Composition from Hofstra University.

Tomoko Kerr was born and grew up in Japan. As a child, she was always interested in music, art and theater and enjoyed many on-stage and production experiences throughout her childhood. Tomoko moved to New York City in 1997 to study fashion design at Fashion Institute of Technology. She has been practicing shamisen under Masayo Ishigure since 2007 and has performed at many cultural events in NY tri-state area. She also performed at the International Koto Festival at Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia in 2013. Currently Tomoko is a concept director/textile designer for a major American fashion company.

Kenneth Hutchinson was born in New York City where he studied classical piano and blues guitar. In the 1980’s he began composing music for independent films such as “Agent on Ice” and “The Sandman.” In 1990 Ken moved to Tokyo for four years to pursue his growing interest in Architecture and Design. He has since had the pleasure of performing at many cultural events in and around New York City with the New York Sawai Koto Academy. In August 2013, Ken performed at the International Koto Festival held in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia. Currently Ken is an Architect and Director of Construction for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo.