ErikoYamaki composition, jazz piano, started playing piano at age 4 and flute when she was 11. After graduating from Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo, she attended Berklee College of Music where she received a degree in Jazz Composition and studied piano. After Berklee, she played in the Boston area with the Sonny Watson Quintet and East West Quartet. In 2016, after a somewhat extended hiatus, Eriko resumed writing and performing with the jazz trio “TRIchrO,” whose first CD “Gravity” was released in 2018. Eriko has also been composing classical pieces which have achieved recognition in various composition competitions, and a few albums were released from Naxos Records. On September 5, 2023, The National Philharmonic of Moldova wNS AUMMER CONTEMPORARY MUSIC DAYS in Greece. She will start teaching Jazz Piano at Middlesex School.
David Mercure, bass, is an Andover resident and a graduate of Boston’s Berklee College of Music where he earned a degree in composition. David performs regularly with TRIchrO as well as the Tom Nutile Big Band, the Nathan Aronow Nextet and numerous artists throughout the Boston area. He is also an active pit bassist with a number of theatre groups throughout Greater Boston and provides private bass instruction. David studied bass with Cecil McBee, Bruce Gertz, Ed Friedland and John Neves and contemporary composition with Jeronimas Kačinskas and John Bavicchi.
Mark Fairweather, drums, BM (Percussion Performance) Berklee College of Music studied with Hal Fairweather, Hugh Soebbing, Gideon Alorwoyie, Johnny Lane, Steve Wilkes, Tommy Campbell, John Ramsey, Joe Hunt, Dean Anderson, Gary Chaffee. In Mark’s playing one can hear differing influences of the many bands and ensembles, great musicians, and iconic teachers with which he has worked. Dynamic tonal and timbre explorations, polyrhythmic and polymetric applications, organic phrasing, and an exacting orchestral touch combine with hard-hitting rock, groovy soul, frenzied bebop, and infectious hip hop. Underlying all is an old-school, driving swing sensibility rarely heard today. Mark’s classical performances include Portland Symphony, New England Philharmonic, and Indian Hill Symphony. Mark is the Percussion Instructor at Middlesex School, Fenn School, and teaches privately.
Hiroaki Honshuku, Flute, EWI Hiroaki Honshuku was first introduced to jazz in 1985 while teaching music at the US Naval Base in Yokosuka, Japan. A gradute of both Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory, he has studied with various jazz luminaries including George Russell, Dave Holland and George Garzone, among others. Later, Honshuku went on to teach at NEC as well as Longy School of Music. Hiro had been an assistant director for late George Russell at the New England Conservatory from 1987 until Russell's retirement. Hiro has been deeply inspired by Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept for Tonal Organization, which now characterizes Hiro's writing style using Tonal Gravity without any traditional II-V-I resolution. Hiro has played with Mike Stern, Dave Liebman, Mick Goodrick, Dave Weckl, Tiger Okoshi, Maria Schneider, and Tom McKinley, among others, and has appeared on over 25 albums. Over the past two decades, Hiro has been active performing and recording in the Brazilian music scene including Jequere led by José Pienasola, Gustavo Assis-Brasil Group, Teresa Inês Group, Gilson Schachnik Group, Alfredo Cardim, João Marcos, and many others.
Joel Bard, oboe and English horn, received a B.M. in oboe from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Mack, and an M.M. in conducting from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Jorge Mester and Roger Nierenberg and worked in master classes with Leonard Bernstein and Herbert Blomstedt. He was Director of the Repertory Orchestra at the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras from 1989 to 2011. He also has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University and is an Associate Research Fellow at Pfizer where he is currently focused on biotherapeutic informatics.
Masabumi Koinuma, clarinet, is a community musician who is active in collaborating with regional musicians on chamber and orchestral works. Born in Kanagawa, Japan, he began playing clarinet in college and quickly picked up the skills to play as a solo and orchestral player. Back when he was in Japan, he was a member of such highly noted community orchestras as Amadeus Orchester Tokyo, Blumen Philharmonie, Ensemble Meson, IBM Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan, and the University of Tokyo orchestra. As a soloist, he performed duet- concertino for clarinet and bassoon by Richard Strauss with Blumen Philharmonie in 1999. He continued his music activity after he came to the United States in 2005 for his work as an engineer. He is curently a member of New Philharmonia Orchestra. He also enjoys performing collaborative pieces in chamber concerts. He studied clarinet under Kunio Hirabayashi.
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