Instructors at 1140MA

                                               

【Guitar Division】
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Kentaro Kaneko, the chief instructor at the guitar division (place: Roppongi)

Start to play the guitar from 14 years old, play in several bands while he was in a high school. Before 20 years old he already started to play as a sideman with several artists. From 2004 he enrolled in Berklee College of Music in Boston. Through his school days his performance attracts people's attentions in the industry and got offers from record companies.

After he came back Japan he starts to perform again as a sideman, studio musician, and work for a famous theme park. In 2010 he released his first album "Way to your heart".

Recently he arranged and played on an image song of a TV animation "Astalotte no Omocha!", and played on a video game composer Kenji Ito's "Re:Birth". His style is mostly based on rock, blues, funk, R&B, Jazz, and gets reputations for his emotional play.

Official Website: http://www.kentarokaneko.com

Tomonobu "Nobu" Teshima, instructor at the guitar division (place: Nishinippori)

From his high school days Nobu started to perform in several bands while he was in Aoyama gakuin University he passed the world scholarship audition and enrolled in Berklee College of Music from May 2005.

While he majored
Songwriting, he also learned guitar performance with Bret Willmott, Jim Kelly, Sal Difusco, Don Lappin and Tim Milleretc. He studied broad areas of composition with Jack Perricone, Arnold Friedman, Dan Smith, Henry Gaffney etc, and study conducting with David Callahan and Valerie Taylor etc.

After he graduate from the college, played in several bands in Boston for a year and come back Japan in Feb 2009. Now he is working as an instructor, a sideman / guitarist in several bands, and also as a composer for video games.

Official Blog:
http://nobumusicblog.blog110.fc2.com/

Masakazu Kiritake, instructor at guitar division (place: Ikebukuro and Nerima)
Masakazu Kiritake was born in Hyogo

He has been playing guitar since 14

Age 20, he was impressed by Jiro Yoshida's playing who is one of the world-class guitarist,
and decided to drop out of college and go to US for study music.
In 2004 he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music. He studied composition and arrangement of jazz under the faculty of the jazz composition department. He also studied guitar with Jon Damian who is famous as the author of “The Guitarist's Guide to Composition and Improvising”. He learned a methodology for building an original solo.
In 2008 he graduated from Berklee College of Music.

Went back to Japan after graduation, he performed in local and taught guitar at a culture school and a guitar school. From 2012, he moved in Tokyo. He perform at live-spot and bar in the metropolitan area.

Demo Performance : Misty (solo guitar)

Official Website : http://ameblo.jp/masakazu-kiritake/


【Bass Division】
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Taro Koike, the chief instructor at the bass division (place: Nishikasai)

Taro was born in Tokyo, started to play rock guitar at 15 years old. Afterwards he studied flamenco guitar with Masashi Yamazaki and Kohei Komori about four years, then switched his main instruments to 6-string fretless bass.

In 2005 he enrolled in Berklee College of Music on a scholarship. He studied composition, film scoring and bass performance with professor Thomas McGah, Arnold Friedman, Joseph Smith, Fernando Huergo, Yumiko Matsuoka, George Monseur, Thomas Hojnacki, Rick Kress, Kris Adams, Jonathan Klein, Bill Elliott, David Howard, Jim Stinnett and other splendid teachers.

After he came back home in 2007, he started to perform with various musicians around Tokyo. Currently he is writing to and playing with his own piano trio called “Kazuhiro, Taro & Chris“ with his schoolmates Kazuhiro Masuda 
(Pf.) and Chris Duke (Ds.). Also since 2011, he has been playing in a trio “EBIUMA(蝦馬)” formed by Toshiyuki Honma (Pf./G., ex. THE TRA-BRYU). He is a 6-string fretless bass' expert, has many solo repertories as well as trio performances.

Besides his personal works as a musician, he is also a member of a Hollywood-based music production called “PearUp Media”, managing its Japan branch office as a director and working on music for film, TV, animation and video game. In 2011 he joined in a orchestral recording team in Bratislava for SEGA's brand-new video game "Binary Domain".

As a member of PearUp Media, he also participated in CAPCOM's "Resident Evil 6" music production project in 2011-2012. For the title PearUp Media wrote 52 pieces including the main theme, provided all the orchestration and orchestra recording supervision in Sydney. He is also a specialist of MakeMusic's notation software Finale.

Official Website: http://www.tarokoike.net/en


Hiroshi Tokieda, instructor at the bass division (place: Kamiyacho)
Hiroshi Tokieda is a Composer/Arranger/Bass player who was born in Tokyo, Japan.
After receiving a degree in Psychology in Tokyo, he took his remarkable versatility to Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA. As a scholarship student, he majored in Film Scoring and graduated with the highest academic distinction (summa cum laude).

While pursuing his degree in Boston, Hiroshi worked as a Core Music Tutor on campus that involved teaching his peers music theory in terms of Jazz Harmony, Traditional Harmony, Composition and Arranging.

He is currently based in Tokyo and his recent work as a Sound Producer, Bassist, Composer and Arranger includes Singer/Songwriter tea's album, 'Unknown Places', which is released with Sony Music Labels on 23rd October 2019.

He also joined tea's Asia tour including her performance at The Hong Kong International Jazz Festival 2019 as a Music Director, Bassist.

Awards:
Finalist in UK Songwriting Competition
"Best New Artist in Japan" by MPCJ (Music Pen Club Japan)

Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/hiroshi.tokieda.5


Noriaki Hosoya, instructor at the bass division (place: Noborito, Kawasaki City)
After graduated Berklee College of Music in Boston, U.S.A. as performance & jazz composition and arranging major, he moved to Berlin, Germany in 2010.
In 2011, he became, and is still, musical director of Canadian singer Rachelle Jeanty (ex. background vocalist of Celine Dion) as well as her bass player.
In 2012, one of his Berlin based project “Falk Bonitz Trio” was invited to "Germany-Week” event hosted by German Embassy in Georgia.
In 2010 his first solo album called "Landscapes“ (Disc Union Company) was published. In 2016 his upcoming album with European musicians will be published.
He is currently an endowed artist of Adamovic Basses (the Netherlands), Vanderkley Amplification (the Netherlands), and DL Cables (Poland).
He moved back to Japan in 2016 & is currently based in Tokyo.



【Drums Division】
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Isao Cato, the chief instructor at the drums division (place: Itabashi)

Graduated from Souza Lima Nucleo Percussao SL Bateria, Percussao (Department of Instrumental Music, Souza Lima University of Music)
Belonging to the percussion instrument corps of the Brazilian Carnival Samba Parade, he has been performing since 2016.
Learn Latin rhythm, drumming and percussion ensemble with the National Music Academy instructors in Cuba.
Majored in Musicology in the Musicology Research Area of Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts.
He is a member of the Latin American Society of Japan and the Rhythm Society of Japan.

A message from Isao:
"I offer lessons based on Brazilian rhythms such as samba and bossa nova, and drumming and rhythm theory based on Cuban rhythms such as salsa and rumba. If you want to learn the rhythm that connects you from the local area, please come and visit me."

Professional performance genre:
Jazz, pop, Brazilian music, Latin American Caribbean music

Studied with:
Rikiya Higashihara, Masayuki Muraishi


Naoki Aikawa, instructor at the drums division (place: Ikebukuro)
Naoki was born in Ibraki-Pref, Japan in1976 and started playing the drums at age of 15. In 2002 he enrolled Berklee College of Music and studied various drum styles with Casey Scheuerell, Joe Hunt and Dave DiCenso.

After graduating from the college, he came back to Japan in 2004. Based in Tokyo, he is performing as a leader and composer of his own trio called We3 and playing on several records like “Tinga Tinga Japonism” of Yasuyoshi Ogino, "Noriaki Hosoya Landscapes” of Naoriaki Hosoya, “Three Wishes” of Nobuki Takamen and so on.


Toshihiro Mori, instructor at the drums division (place: Nakano)
Toshihiro Mori (Ds.)
Toshihiro Mori was born and raised in Osaka, Japan.

After graduating from Berklee College of Music in Boston MA, he returned to Japan and moved to Tokyo. Soon after, Toshihiro debuted as a drummer in the Japanese major music scene as a part of the pop/rock group "Hemenway".

In subsequent years, he took part in notable musical festivals such as Summer Sonic, Rock in Japan, Countdown Japan, Japan Expo (France), Inchon Rock Festival (Korea) and so on.

After disbanding in 2015, Toshihiro began his career as a session musician and drum instructor backing up numerous Japanese artists on tour as well as in the studio.

In 2018 along with other members he founded the pop band Tozambu.

Toshi continues to work within the Japanese music industry as an artist as well as studio musician and instructor spreading his infectious love for music and art to everyone he encounters.


【Piano Division】
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Mizuho Yamamoto, instructor at piano division (place: Funabashi-keibajo)
Composer/arranger/keyboardist. She was born in Nigata Prefecture, after graduating Tokyo College of Muisc Composition major she went to USA to study music more. While she was enrolling in Berklee College of Music she was listed on DEANS LIST in succession. She also studied and performed at Miami Dade College as a pianist for opera courses under exclusive contract.

She studied composition with Manabu Kawai, Akira Nishimura and Yutaka Fujiwara, studied orchestration with Shinichiro Ikebe, studied jazz piano with Mike Gerber and Jeff Govell.

In 2008, as the first Japanese winner, she won 2nd award of "International Songwriting Competition (Instrumental music)" judged by producers of major record companies in USA, popular artists such as Chaka Khan, Ricky Martin and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Currently she is working on compositions for DVDs or dance music, performs as a pianist for singers, and teaching piano performance, composition/arranging and ear training.


Official Website: http://www.mizuho-official.com

Kazuhiro Masuda, instructor at piano division (place: Fuchuu)
Kazuhiro has started to play classical piano and compositions from his childhood and grew up with listening to various genres of music. While he was studying composition in Berklee College of Music, he started to be interested in improvisation. After coming back Japan he is performing actively as well as working as a composer/arranger for theater, TVCM etc.

He studied classical piano with Masako Kobayashi and Robert Christopherson, studied jazz piano with Jeff Covell and Laszlo Gardony. From his own experience of studying various styles of music, now he is guiding his student to cultivate their own personalities.

Hiroki Yoshino, instructor at piano division (place: Nishikasai)

(Japanese lesson only)                                                                                                                                               

【Vocal Division】
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Tea, instructor at vocal division (place: Kamiyacho) *Currently Unavailable
Tea is a Singer/Songwriter/Lyricist who was born in Pune, India. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Fergusson College, Pune, India and a Bachelor’s degree in Songwriting from Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA.
Her foundation is an extraordinary mix of genres including but not limited to Western Classical, Indian Classical, Soul, Jazz, R&B and Popular Music with influences from Middle Eastern, Serbian, Chinese and Korean traditional music.
Her exposure to such different forms of music has contributed extensively to her broad perspective in terms of her musical interests, ideas and versatility.
She has performed live at venues like Hard Rock Café, Pune/Bombay, India, Blue Note, New York, USA and San Francisco Jazz Center, San Francisco, USA.
She has won an all-state singing competition in India. She was also a finalist on a Reality TV show called FameX on national television in India and a finalist in an international songwriting competition in the UK.
She is currently in the midst of collaborations with musicians and writers in Tokyo, Japan and San Francisco, USA.
Her debut EP/CD is coming soon.




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