SHOKO NAGAI

Born in Nagoya, Japan, composer and pianist Shoko Nagai has been evolving as a professional musician for sixteen years. She started Japanese stupid organ call " Electone" since age 4.After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1999 she moved to New York City and quickly established herself in the downtown jazz scene performing with such renowned artists as John Zorn, Rasheid Ali, Buch Morris,Tom Rainy, Cuong Vu, Ikue Mori, Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto), Roy Champbell, Satoshi Takeishi, Stomu Takeishi, Ned Rothenberg, Matana Roberts, Guillermo E. Brown, Sam Newsome to name a few. The Shoko Nagai Quintet which features some of New York's best musicians has performed extensively at the BlueNote, Knitting factory, Tonic, The Stone, Location One, Vision Festival as well as at other top New York clubs and concert. Nagai released her first CD "Two levels Crossing" in 2000, 2nd CD "VORTEX" in 2002, 3rd. CD "Vsoon" in 2003. Nagai has performed in Norway (Natt Jazz Festival 1998) in Germany (Moers Jazz Festival 2006), Japan, Switzerland, Israel,and United States. In 2004 International Executive Service Corps (with an attendance of Mr. David Rockefeller) at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Her most recent project is "Vortex" which is a free improvisation duo with piano and electronics. In 2004, she received a grant from Philadelphia Music Project 2005 Grant for JazzJaunts, a project as "Ephemeral" in which seven jazz artists will compose and premiere compositions that incorporate musical traditions from their cultural roots, and formed a new project. Recently, she has composed music for the Japanese film " Starfish Hotel " (directed by John Williams) with Satoshi Takeishi which has been shown world wide.