New York, NY – Independent record label, Mar Creation, Inc. will host the “2011 Nippon Song Holiday Concert”, featuring four prominent Japanese musicians/groups, spanning the genres of jazz to tango. The dynamic concert lineup includes four award-winning musicians and groups, and a special artist reception will immediately follow the concert. The event will take place on Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 7:00 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm) at the Victor Borge Hall at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue (between East 37th and 38th Streets), New York, NY, and tickets are $25 in advance ($30 at the door).

The four New York-based groups of musicians are: Yumi Kurosawa (Japanese koto), Go-Zee-Lah (experimental), m2duo (tango), and Mamiko Taira and Toru Dodo (jazz). Each of the four artists will play a couple traditional/popular Japanese songs, as well as some of their original music. Yumi Kurosawa is an award-winning koto player and composer of traditional and contemporary music, whose unique style incorporates computer sound into her original music. She has toured internationally in Japan, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Russia and the United States, and has also appeared in many well-known venues such as Apollo Sound Stage, Joe’s Pub, and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Go-Zee-Lah is the partnership between Kyoko Kitamura on voice and Yayoi Ikawa on piano. They have used their vast musical expertise to compose their original works of music, using Japanese folk songs as compositional and improvisational inspiration. Go-Zee-Lah was featured at New York City’s legendary Vision Festival in 2010. M2duo consists of two Julliard graduates, Machiko Ozawa (violin) and Makia Matsumura (piano), who are known for their unique take on tango – ranging from their passionate interpretations of Astor Piazzolla’s music, sometimes even mixing tap dancing with violin – to reinventing Japanese pop songs as tango. Ozawa is a much sought-after tango violinist; Matsumura is one of the youngest pianists to regularly contribute improvised scores to classic silent films. Mamiko Taira (vocal) and Toru Dodo’s (piano) setlist consists of everything from American pop songs, to jazz standard, to Japanese folk songs. Taira is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning Japanese jazz singer. Dodo is a Tokyo-born world-renown pianist who has performed in venues all over the world and has released four solo albums to date.

Tickets for the concert are $25 in advance ($30 at the door), and can be purchased online at: 2011 Nippon Song Holiday Concert .

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