Fumi Tanakadate

Fumi Tanakadate is a versatile music artist, specializing in piano, Japanese percussion and bamboo flute, who has a unique combination of an expertise in European Classical music and a background in traditional folk dance and music from Japan.  Fumi studied and worked extensively with Kaoru Watanabe, performing at such venues as Joe’s Pub, National Sawdust, Pioneer Works, the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, the Rubin Museum of Art, Super Deluxe in Tokyo and at PASIC, Percussive Arts Society International Convention.  Fumi has also collaborated with Shane Shanahan of the Silkroad Ensemble, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Chieko Kojima and Yuta Sumiyoshi of KODO, Alicia Hall Moran, Sonoko Kawahara (theatre director), Parijat Desai (dancer), Garrett Fisher (composer), Satoshi Takeishi, and Kiyohiko Semba.

One of her recent projects was an unconventional trio with an erhu player Ying-Chieh Wang from Taiwan and a janggu player Woonjung Sim from South Korea, sharing and creating a new perspective on traditional music as part of Contemporary Music Platform, a residency at National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan.

Fumi currently teaches at Wesleyan University and serves as the primary instructor at Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center, giving classes and educational workshops at local schools and colleges. She has also taught at North American Taiko Conference, East Coast Taiko Conference, and European Taiko Conference.

As a classical pianist, Fumi has performed throughout Japan, tri-state area, Austria, and Spain. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Wesleyan University and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from Manhattan School of Music.