Instructors

Shiro Sadamura

Shiro Sadamura was born in Tokyo, Japan. At his age 7, he started to took classical violin lesson at SUZUKI METHOD. In 1984 He went to study Jazz Violin with Matt Glaser at Berklee College of Music in Boston through 1986. He moved to New York City in 1987 to enroll in City College of NY and at the same time, studied privately with Ron Carter for two years. He also studied with Yoko Takebe, who is currently the concertmaster of New York Philharmonic. Shiro was also awarded the honorable “Seymour Peck Scholorship in the Arts” and “Pro Musica Award” at City College of NY.
In 1988, Shiro joined 10-time Grammy Award Winner, The Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Ensemble, and performed at the 1989 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the 1990 JVC Jazz Festival at Carnegie Hall, and recorded the album “SUENO”, which was nominated for the 1990 Grammy Award. He actively worked with Eddie at clubs in NYC such as Blue Note, SOB’s, Bottom Line, Village Gate and toured through the US and Europe until 1990.
After leaving Palmieri’s band, he started work as a freelancer and lead his own group UPLINKERS, a contemporary Jazz Funk project that debuted in New York City in July 1995, and had continuously performed at NY clubs such as The BLUENOTE, NELLS, IZZY BAR, NEO – LOUNGE.
Shiro has released his first CD “METAMORPHOSIS” in 2005. The album was recorded all in NYC and was constructed with a well mixture of some tracks from The Uplinkers and some duo performances with Eddie Palmieri, Ron Carter, and Matt Glaser.
In 2012, after living in USA for 28 years, Shiro decided to move back to Japan and has been very active playing
around 200 live performances including many Jazz Festivals with his own leader band and teaching Jazz and violin.

 

ERI ITONAGA

Eri was born in Oita, Beppu, Japan and started playing piano and violin at the age of 3.
Since her early ages, she won a variety of musical awards.
After graduating from the Music course at Baiko Jyogakuin High school in Yamaguchi, Japan,
She enrolled in Tokyo College of Music in 1999 and switched her principal instrument from violin to viola.
While attending at the college, she was awarded a special prize at the Osaka International Music Competition and an Encouragement Prize at The Great Wall of China International Music Competition in 2002.
After graduating from the college in 2003, she started performing professionally for TV shows, recording sessions, and played with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra,
supporting Boyz II Men, SMAP, and many other Japanese artists.

In 2010, she went to US again to enrolled in Berklee College of Music with a scholarship from the Asia World Scholarship Tour.
At Berklee, she studied with Matt Glaser, Rob Tomas, Mimi Rabson, Eugene Friesen, to study Jazz Viola.
She was a member of the Berklee World Strings Orchestra and the Berklee Cotemporary Orchestra,
and had chances to perform under direction of Ivan Lins, Ron Carter, and many other world famous artists.
Since her coming back to Japan in 2012, she has been very active teaching privately and at the Music schools
besides supporting famous Japanese artists such as Eikichi Yazawa, AKB48, and many others.
She also has been active playing Jazz to her new direction.