Karin Nakagawa

Known for playing multiple styles across jazz, traditional, and contemporary music, Karin Nakagawa is a Japanese singer, composer, and player of the koto, a traditional stringed instrument and the national instrument of Japan. Born into a musical family, she began learning the instrument at age 12 and went on to study the traditional 13-string instrument at university, but developed expertise on the rarer 25-string koto. Nakagawa has performed in over a dozen countries across Europe, Africa, and Asia, recorded with the J-pop group <a href="spotify:artist:5YneEA2nLtAhkD5t2769lZ">Ikimono Gakari</a> for their 2009 release Hajimari no Uta, and appears on the Japanese alt-rock band <a href="spotify:artist:5jQa0f5MIMPEK7udL7UpI6">Porno Graffitti</a>'s 2010 DVD Trigger. She collaborated with double bassist <a href="spotify:artist:4GyvHXnvKDjmMjMQJmsOTy">Anders Jormin</a> and vocalist/violinist/violist <a href="spotify:artist:6wMtEmlrb01e5JqZi62T4y">Lena Willemark</a> for the improvisatory, traditional music-based Trees of Light, released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ECM%22">ECM</a> in 2015. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi