Meg Okura - Jazz Violinist, Composer, Erhu Player

The New York Times called her “vibrant and sophisticated,” jazz violinist/composer Meg Okura is one of the leading voices on chamber jazz scene today. She was the featured violinist in three Cirque du Soleil productions, Varekai, Corteo, and Wintuk, and has performed with musical icons including David Bowie, Michael Brecker, Lee Konitz, Diane Reeves, and Steve Swallow. She has been featured at venues such as the Knitting Factory to Carnegie Hall to Madison Square Garden, as well as music festivals worldwide.

A native of Japan, Meg was the concertmaster and soloist with the Asian Youth Orchestra, leading one hundred of the finest musicians from nine Asian countries. As a teenager, she made her US debut at the Kennedy Center as a soloist with the late Alexander Schneider’s New York String Orchestra, and moved to New York to study at The Juilliard School. While at Juilliard, she taught herself jazz and made a difficult switch to jazz upon graduation.

As a jazz violinist, she had toured with Michael Brecker Quindectet, Steve Swallow/Ohad Talmor Sextet, and world music groups such as Pharaohs’ Duaghter, or Septeto Rodriguez, and has appeared at the Novi Sad Jazz Festival with her own quartet. Today, her credit appears on over fifty albums and movie sound tracks both as violinist and erhu player.

As a composer, Meg was commissioned to write the “Fanfare” by the New York Symphonic Ensemble to be premiered in Okayama, Japan in 1998. Since then, she has composed for numerous live performances and short films, including “The Congregation” which aired on PBS. In 2007, Ms. Okura composed the entire score for a critically acclaimed production of “The Crane Wife”-- dance and music based on a Japanese folk tale.

Meg Okura has received numerous grants including the Jerome Foundation/American Composers Forum Commissioning Program, Meet The Composer Metlife Creative Connections Grants, and Urban Artist Initiative. She has also received several honors as a composer-- the American University’s Saxophone Symposium Composition Contest, the Independent Music Awards, the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and the International Songwriting Competition.

In 2006, Meg Okura founded the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble--a critically acclaimed chamber jazz ensemble based in New York City. The ensemble has been invited to perform at NYC Winter Jazz Festival, Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center, MoMA, Kumble Theater, University Settlement, Saint Peters Church, Saint Paul’s Chapel, Levitt Pavilion Pasadena, and the Knitting Factory. In 2008, the ensemble made its Japan debut, playing all sold out the concerts. This past summer, the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble was presented twice by Lincoln Center in the “Meet The Artist Library Series” as a part of Lincoln Center’s 50th anniversary celebration. The ensemble has just recorded its second album, which will be released in 2010.

Meg Okura will perform with David Benoir Trio in Los Angeles on March 20, 2010.