#316 Kana Omori- Percussionist, Educator, Author and More!
Today’s guest is Kana Omori. Kana Omori is an international marimbist and percussionist from Japan.
Kana has been awarded several prizes, including First Prize at the International Music Competition in Kobe, Japan in 2006 and the First Prize and Absolute Prize at the International Percussion Competition in Italy, in 2010, where she was also awarded a special prize from jury member N. J. Zivkovic. In 2011, she was awarded the Cultural Prize of the City of Kyoto.
Kana has performed as a marimba soloist with many orchestras throughout Japan and has appeared on several Japanese music television and radio broadcasts.
Having released six albums of marimba music. And her newest album, Gifts Of The Wood, has got an “Semi-Specialty Aword” in Japanese record magazine. Kana is always interested in performing, recording and premiering new works written for her. Her 7th album is coming soon. She has also published a collection of essays My Dreams and many books of her arrangements, include “Masterpieces of Classical Music on Marimba” by HCO Music. Kana’s many arrangements are published by Edition Svitzer.
Kana has given recitals, master classes and clinics around Europe, the USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, and Argentina. She was a member of the jury for the final round of The Japan Classical Music Competition. She has been a member of faculty and jury of The International Marimbafest Festival and Competition in Australia since 2019.
Kana completed both her Masters of Music and graduate studies at the Osaka College of Music. Additionally, Ms. Omori completed a Masters of Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, Germany, where she studied with a percussion legend, Dr. Peter Sadlo.
Kana is an international artist of Adams Percussion, Encore Mallets, Inc/Salyers Percussion, Aluphone, and Sabian Cymbals. Kana has her own signature line of mallets “Kana Omori Signature Mallets Series” with Encore Mallets, Inc. Fall Creek Marimbas designed a special glockenspiel model named after Kana Omori - the “KANA-Glock”. And, Adams Percussion has made a special pink colored marimba for her.
Now she is a tourist ambassador in Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Japan as well as a presenter of her radio program “Kana’s Marimba Twitting”. Starting in April of 2023, she is a lecturer of the Osaka College of Music.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Michael Piolet! Michael majored in Studio Music and Jazz Instrumental Performance at the University of Miami Frost School of Music where he was a Stamps Distinguished Ensemble Scholar and a member of the inaugural Stamps Jazz Quintet, Class of 2013. He studied drumset and jazz percussion privately with Steve Rucker and John Yarling. As a member of the Stamps Jazz Quintet at the Frost School of Music, he performed at the Monterey Next Generation Festival in California and the 2011 and 2012 JEN conferences in New Orleans and Louisville. He was also featured on the Stamps Jazz Quintet’s self-titled debut album on Summit Records. The Stamps Jazz Quintet was chosen as the “Jazz Group” winner in DownBeat magazine’s 34th Annual Student Music Awards in the Undergraduate Outstanding College Performances category (2011). Michael Piolet performed in a variety of other jazz groups at Frost, including the award-winning Frost Concert Jazz Band at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Florida with flautist Nestor Torres and at Festival Miami with saxophonist Dave Liebman, both in 2012.
Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Piolet is regularly performed with local artists throughout South Florida when attending the University of Miami and he often returned to Chicago to perform professionally. He has performed extensively with steel pan virtuoso Leon Foster Thomas. In 2018, he moved to New York City, where he joined the touring company of Hamilton.
Gig Alerts
Madonna’s global Celebration Tour has sold out 36 dates, with more than 600,000 tickets sold.
Due to overwhelming demand, 23 new dates were added this week across North America and Europe for Madonna’s 40th anniversary Celebration Tour. The global tour now includes second shows in Miami, Las Vegas, Milan, Barcelona, and more, in addition to three nights in Paris and four nights in New York, Los Angeles, and London. -Article
Jazz in the Gardens is happening in Miami March 11-12.
MarimbaFest is happening in Perth, Australia July 2-8. Kana will be one of the featured guests!
Salsa Fest in Cuba is happening from Feb 22-26. Friends of the show, Bobby Allende and Marc Quniones will be there as well.
Love Rocks is happening on March 9. Tix available starting Jan 27th.
You can watch the Grammy Awards on Sun Feb 5.
Educational Spotlight
Aaron Sterling’s King Dojo is back, in Nashville on Feb 27. He will spend 8hrs in a studio with you and a small group of musicians. Still some spots left.
Product Review
Damon has released his Plethora of Percussion (aka P.O.P.) pack with Yurt Rock. There are over 1,000 loops and one-shots for drummers, other instrumentalists, engineers, producers, singer-songwriters and more!
Here is the Spotify Playlist of iconic pop percussion songs that Damon and Marcos Torres created.
Iconic Recording
Kana picked J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor as the iconic recording for the week.
This was featured in the Disney animated version of Fantasia.
Kana arranged a version of this song for the marimba.
Music News
More evidence that Apple continues work on its classical music app has surfaced in code from iOS 16.3.
The final stages of its beta test are underway, with a public release expected next week. However, it’s still unclear if the classical music app will launch then–or at a later date. According to a report from MacRumors, some noted changes in code appear to change references from just ‘Apple Classical’ to ‘Apple Music Classical.’ Another snippet of code revealed offers users, “Explore this artist in the app designed for classical music.” -Article
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its first hearing on January 24 to address “the Ticketmaster debacle.”
Struggles with Ticketmaster have been ongoing for years, but Taylor Swift fans brought it to national attention with sales for the upcoming “Eras Tour.” -Article
You can watch the video of the hearing.
Damon also mentions the interview with Matthew Lee Erlbach, who is a co-founder of the grassroots organization, Be An Arts Hero.
Kana Omori Interview
The song leading into the interview is Kana’s arrangement of Libertango by Astor Piazzolla.
Damon met Kana through friend of the show, Ian Hale. Ian met Kana at the Universal Marimba Competition in Belgium in 2007.
Kana attended the University of Performing Arts in Munich, Germany.
Kana started playing piano when she was 3 years old. When she got to elementary school, she was Introduced to the marimba in the schools front ensemble for the marching band.
She flirted with the french horn in junior high and high school, and then came back to percussion.
Her dad’s hobby is playing violin and her great great grandmother played the Shamisen.
After High School, Kana attended the Osaka College of Music. She will be teaching there as an associate professor in April.
Shout-out to Kai Stensgaard.
Kana talks about how she holds her six mallet grip. She took up the challenge of learning that grip during 2020 when everyone was home during the pandemic.
She said her friend Yurika Kimura helped her out over the phone.
To get better quicker, Kana put together etudes to master the technique of playing six mallets.
Kana speaks Japanese, English, German and is learning Spanish.
Kana has two cats and they sleep on mallet stands while she practices and performs.
Kana’s six mallet etude book will be out later this year, but in the meantime, you can check out the other books she wrote HERE.
When Kana’s schedule is full, she does about 3-4 concerts in a month as a solo marimbist and sometimes percussionist internationally. It takes her 1 month to get ready for large concerto concerts.
Damon brings up the minister of the culture for Japan. Kana said she doesn’t get help from the government and she books everything herself.
Kana talks backline instruments/bars.
Kana plays an Adams Alpha Series Marimba with special custom pink resonators.
Kana talks about the different percussion and marimba competitions she has entered. You can see some of the accolades in her bio at the top of this page.
Kana dispels the rumor she is a great cook.
Kana talks about the New Year’s Eve celebrations with her family as well as the events that go on.
Kana writes about 200 hand written New Year’s cards.
Kana has a signature series mallet with Encore mallets. She also has a glockenspiel made by Fall Creek, that is red and has a lighter case for Kana to be able to transport. It is called the Kana-Glock.
Kana picks the iconic recording.
Kana uses Adams Concert Percussion, Pearl Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Salyers Percussion, Encore Mallets, Percussion Source, Edition Svitzer, and Fall Creek Glockenspiels.
Shout-out to Kana’s teachers! Ms. Yuriko Onishi, Toru Kitano, Dr. Peter Sadlo
Shout-out to Korogi Marimbas.
Kana talks about the T-shirts with her logo.
