Yuta Yumaguchi is a lead trumpet player from Sapporo who has previously attended Berklee’s 5-week Summer Performance Program in Boston. He had the opportunity to study privately with Tiger Okoshi who thinks highly of his abilities. Having studied the trumpet…
Kumpei Iki is a clarinetist who currently attends the Koyo Conservatory, a Berklee International Network school in Japan. He loves old swing music but he loves creating his own sounds. When asked what he will bring to Berklee he…
About Takeru Saito Takeru Saito graduated from Fukushima High School in the Fukushima Prefecture. He began learning the piano early in his childhood and shifted to jazz piano when he joined a jazz club at his high school. He…
Shun Kumagai was born in Sendai City, Miyagi in 1991. His passion for music stems back in the days playing the tuba in his elementary school brass band at the age of ten. Then he received a surprise gift of…
TOMODACHI Matsue-New Orleans Exchange Program 2015 Matsue and New Orleans became Friendship Cities due to their shared connections with literary great Lafcadio Hearn. The participants of the TOMODACHI Matsue-New Orleans Exchange Program 2015 visited Matsue from October 3 to 15,…
This TOMODACHI Suntory Music Scholarship Fund creates opportunities for young Japanese musicians to study at prestigious music schools in the United States. Suntory Holdings Limited (Suntory) and the TOMODACHI Initiative have partnered to foster young Japanese music leaders who are committed to…
The following programs have been funded by TOMODACHI’s Fund for Exchanges through generous contributions from Toyota Motor Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Hitachi, Ltd.. TOMODACHI-Aloha Leadership Program Building the TOMODACHI Generation: A Partnership to Engage U.S. and Japanese University Students in Social Problem Solving 2015 Building…
Emi Kamemoto, a Japanese-American student at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and TOMODACHI Initiative intern, recently participated in two TOMODACHI youth dialogues in Tokyo. The first session brought together a small group of Japanese and American university students…
On November 25, 2012 the world-renowned Glenn Miller Orchestra held two charity concerts with local youth at Hamanasu Hall in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture.
Cultural programs in sports, music and the arts provide gateways for Japanese and Americans to learn about and to develop enduring interest in each other’s cultures. The TOMODACHI Initiative collaborates with many long-standing and prestigious cultural exchange programs, as well as…