Naoko Takada

World renown marimba soloist and Yamaha artist Naoko Takada has toured the world performing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Lincoln Center in New York.Takada’s talent was apparent at age eleven when she was guest marimba soloist with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. She has since performed with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Boise Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic and the Xapala Symphony in Mexico. In 2004 she played in the “Wall of Gang Camp Gala” hosted by Paul Newman appearing with Hollywood stars Bruce Willis, Meryl Streep, and Danny Glover.Following a concert at the Kennedy Center, the Washington Post wrote, “Naoko Takada plays a marimba, moving with speed, grace and extraordinary accuracy… like a practitioner of some as-yet-undefined martial art, wielding two mallets in each hand and then plunging them down, with fierce exactitude, in the instruments solar plexus.” In 2007, Ms. Takada signed with Japanese recording label Victor Entertainment and released her first solo Album, Marimba Meets the Classics. In its review CD Baby exclaimed, "Naoko's gift for this instrument comes through in both her exquisite and delicate touch as well as the excitement that she pours into each piece."Last year, Takada won the S and R Washington Award, a prize that supports artists who contribute to cultural understanding between the U.S. and Japan. Previously she took First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Audition, the Houston Ima Hogg national young Artist Competition, the Sorantin Young Artists International Competition, and the Japan International League of Artists Competition.In Japan growing up, Naoko studied marimba with Akiko Suzuki and Keiko Abe. She later came to the United States and studied with Karen Ervin Pershing at the California State University, Northridge where she earned a Bachelor in Music. She then earned a Master of Music from Ithaca College working with Gordon Stout.In addition to being a Yamaha performing artist and clinician, Naoko Takada also has her own signature series of mallets available from Encore Mallets, Inc. Her arrangements and commissioned works are available through studio 4 Publications under the Naoko Takada series. Along with her solo concert tours and master classes, she devotes herself to educational outreach programs such as Midori & Friends in NYC.I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)