Hello~!

♪ Hello~! ヾ(＾∇＾) 
皆さん、こんにちは～！

So... this is my first time owning a blog! O.O Hello internet world! I hope life is exciting! \(^o^)/
I moved up to Cambridge from Florida late August 2012 to work on my ♪ Masters in Music Performance! So far, the journey has been nothing short of incredible! I have been able to meet many fantastic performers, teachers, students, and friends! Boston = <3 音楽最高！

When I was younger, I have always had a strong fondness for video games and anime. Perhaps it was my grandparents I should thank for that lol. My grandfather used to record all of my shows in Japan and ship them to me in Florida! It's probably also why I have not lost my Japanese and for that, I thank them eternally!! Anime was also something that my brother and I bonded with. We liked the same shows and rewatched episodes over and over again. At some point, we both started paying more attention to the music... so many beautiful melodies are created for animes and games! Fun, happy tunes to bittersweet, almost heart wrenching phrases... we were starting to buy the OSTs and figuring out the notes by ear!

やっぱり幼い頃からずっとアニメやゲームが大好きだったので、自然にそのBGMにめっちゃ惹かれました。ただのBGMとかじゃなくって本当に素敵なメロディーがいっぱい聞けるので、憧れました。自分もいつかこうゆう曲をやりたいっと思っちゃった！

As an elementary school student, I remember wanting to learn to play the violin because Kaiou, Michiru, my favorite character from セーラームーン (Sailor Moon), was a violinist! Also! The 外部太陽系三戦士 (the sailor soldiers from the 3 outer planets) had the COOLEST THEME SONG!! All violin, but so exciting! I vowed to pick up violin in orchestra in middle school!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGx88OYQM0Q

But then... I was sent to band camp... Apparently, I was fit to be a flute player. My band director let me skip beginning band and started me in Intermediate Band in 6th grade. Goodbye violin ambitions~... ;_;
But then... Chrono Cross ( クロノ・クロス) came out! After hearing the opening music and watching the opening CG... I was in love. I thought to myself, "I MUST PLAY THE THEME NOW!!" And then from there on, my flute love was born! Naturally, after that, I started getting into band music and classical flute solos, but my love for game and anime OSTs also grew exponentially!

Select Start
Graphic by Kanako Sueyoshi aka Kiki

I went to the University of Florida for my undergrad and had the opportunity to play in a video game cover group called Select Start! My friend from high school was the violinist in this group and when the flute player could not make shows, she asked me to cover his parts. I met many wonderful people through Select Start and performed at events I probably wouldn't think to play at. Conventions were always a blast! But what made the experience so much more was the passion and excitement you could feel at these venues. Hundreds of people excited to hear, see, and experience this world of anime and games!

Select Start performing as the guest for Video Games Live at Hardrock Live, Orlando

It occurred to me here how narrow the world of music can seem on the inside. Music is music, and beautiful music is enjoyable by anyone. It doesn't matter if we play Tchaikovsky Symphony 4 or the theme from .hack//SIGN... if there's good music, let's play it! And there is so much beautiful music today!

.... and here I am today, a first year Masters student in Music Performance with Marco Granados at the Longy School of Music! Let's have some fun! ^_^

Select Start Recording Session