Performer: KAORU WATANABE

Born in St. Louis, MO in 1975., Kaoru grew up in a musical household- father
a violinist and mother a harpist in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Kaoru began playing flute at 13 and studied with St. Louis Symphony flutist
Jan Smith. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy in northern
Michigan, he moved to New York to study at the Manhattan School of Music as a jazz flute/saxophone major and performed and recorded with, among others, Blue
Note recording artists Stefon Harris and Jason Moran. Kaoru also joined New
York based Japanese drumming (taiko) group Soh Daiko and became heavily
interested in Japanese music.

After graduating, Kaoru moved to Japan and studied Noh Kan and Edo Matsuri Bayashi styles of fue (bamboo flute) in Tokyo. He entered the two year apprenticeship program for the internationally touring taiko group Kodo and became a performing member in 1999. Since then, he has performed and recorded with Kodo in 16 different countries, performing with such luminaries as Zakir Hussein, Aierto Moreira, Giovanni Hidalgo and Carlos Nunez. He specialized in the various fue, composing and acting as artistic director of Kodo's annual world music festival, Earth Celebration. In 2006 Kaoru left Kodo to pursue a career as a solo artist in New York City.