TEINE

Artist Profile

• Shun Ishiwaka

  Percussionist, composer, and musician. Born in Shari County, Hokkaido in 1992. Graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he majored in percussion instruments, receiving the Acanthus Music Award and the Doseikai Award upon graduation. His projects include Answer to Remember, SMTK, and Songbook Trio. He also produces and composes music as a composer and arranger. He has participated in live recordings with numerous artists, including Terumasa Hino, Quruli, Ringo Shiina, Kenshi Yonezu, Gen Hoshino, KID FRESINO, and Haruka Kimijima , as well as performances by international artists. He will be performing the drum part for the character Shunji Tamada in the 2023 animated film "BLUE GIANT." His 2024 album, "Answer to Remember II," won the Jazz Award at the 17th CD Shop Awards 2025. In 2025, he hosted the music series "Shun Ishiwaka: Jazz Transcending" in New York, sponsored by the Japan Society, a Japan-US exchange organization, and received rave reviews. At "Days of Delight," he participated in Banksia Trio's "Time Remembered" and "Ancient Blue," Yuya Wakai's "Poem," and David Bryant's "Coat of Arms."

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• Matohiko Ichino

  Born in Kobe in 1968. Studied under Mick Goodrick at Berklee College of Music.Has released seven albums to date with bands such as melodies, Sweet Herringbone, and rabbitoo, which he leads himself, as well as solo performances. Currently, in addition to his own projects such as melodies (Kenta Tsugami/Min-yen Xie/Akira Sotoyama) and Rasen no Shizuku (Koichi Sato/Shinya Fukumori), he also performs solo live shows on an irregular basis. He is a member of Ryosuke Hashizume GROUP, Takeshi Shibuya DUO, Shota Koyama "Yugenkyo", Hiroaki Mizutani"phonolite", Koichi Sato "Embryo", and Shinya Fukumori "Rindoh". Has participated in many CDs.

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• Kanoa Mendenhall

  Kanoa was born in Japan, but spent most of her youth on the Monterey Peninsula in California. She grew up surrounded by music - her father is a jazz musician and educator, and her mother is a piano teacher. At age 10, she started taking classical cello lessons, but gravitated towards the bass at age 12. Kanoa began her professional career at age 13, performing in Monterey and the San Francisco Bay Area with esteemed local musicians such as Bruce Forman, Vince Lateano, and Dick Whittington. During high school, she studied with the great Bay Area bassist John Shifflett. After completing high school, Kanoa moved to New York City to begin her studies at Columbia University and the Juilliard School. She studied bass with Ben Wolfe and participated in studio classes taught by Ron Carter at Juilliard for two years. While Kanoa was a student at Columbia, she was an early morning jazz radio programmer on WKCR-FM, a non-commercial radio station providing high quality programming in the New York area and streaming online worldwide. She graduated from Columbia in 2019 with a bachelor's degree in East Asian Languages and Cultures. Since graduating from college in 2019, Kanoa has performed across the U.S., Europe, and Canada as a member of vibraphonist Joel Ross' Good Vibes and with saxophonist/vocalist María Grand's trio. She has performed at North Sea Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ Center, Blue Note NY, Monterey Jazz Festival, and was part of the house band of the 2020 NEA Jazz Masters Ceremony led by Terri Lyne Carrington. In 2019, through The Jazz Gallery's Mentorship Series, Kanoa was given the opportunity to learn from and perform with acclaimed drummer and bandleader Kendrick Scott for two months, and got to perform with musicians such as Dayna Stephens, Aaron Parks, Charles Altura, Marquis Hill, John Ellis, Shai Maestro, and Mike Moreno. She has worked/taught at Jazz Camp West, Stanford Jazz Workshop, and has adjudicated at the Next Generation Jazz Festival. Kanoa enjoys gardening, painting, hiking, and meeting Shiba Inus. She considers New York City her home, as well as Sapporo, Japan, where her family is from.

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