Asia Society and the AAPI Jazz Collective presents a vibrant event celebrating the poetry, song, and spoken word of Asian diaspora communities. As part of our celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, this event will weave together personal stories of migration, identity, and belonging with rhythmic expression and cultural fusion.
The AAPI Jazz Collective is an all-star ensemble featuring AAPI jazz artists throughout the tri-state area. Formed in 2019 by Taiwanese-American trombonist, Peter Lin, this ensemble strives to promote empathy through passionate musical expression as well as highlighting the band's cultural roots. The AAPI Jazz Collective performs jazz-infused arrangements of classic and traditional Asian songs, as well as exciting originals they appropriately label as “The New Asian Songbook”. Their debut album, titled Identity and released on Origin Records, is not only a proper representation of their long relationship together, but also a guiding light for many other young AAPI artists looking for inspiration. The AAPI Jazz Collective has performed at the AAPI Jazz Fest, the MET Museum Lunar New Year Celebration, the New York Asian Film Festival, as well as many other venues and festivals.
AAPI Jazz Collective Band
Peter Lin - trombone & bandleader / producer
Mike Bond - piano
Mỹ Tâm Huynh - vocals
Marty Kenney - bass
Malaya Sol - vocals
Erena Terakubo - alto sax / flute
Wen-Ting Wu - drums
Poets
Emdash AKA Emily Lu Gao (高璐璐)
Diya Abbas
Leilani
Mansi Dahal
About the Performers
Peter Lin - trombone & bandleader / producer
Peter Lin is a Taiwanese-American trombonist, producer, and educator in the tri-state area. A graduate from both William Paterson University (undergrad) and Rutgers University (graduate), Peter has performed with jazz luminaries including Slide Hampton, Ron Carter, Winard Harper, Charli Persip, JD Allen, Robin Eubanks, Steve Davis, and Steve Turre. He has also been included in notable ensembles such as the Roy Hargrove Big Band, Jimmy Heath Big Band, and Frank Lacy’s Tromboniverse. With three albums under his name, including his most recent release titled “Identity” on Origin Records, he continues to perform prolifically worldwide as both a leader and sideman. In addition to his musical endeavors, he is also the founder of Yardbird Entertainment, a music production company providing audio, video, and livestream services, as well as the producer of AAPI Jazz Fest, which is currently in its fourth year. He currently teaches at Jazz House Kids and New Jersey Youth Symphony as a trombone instructor and ensemble coach.
Diya Abbas is a Butch Pakistani writer from the Midwest. Her poems and essays can be found in Poetry Daily, The Offing, Sinister Wisdom, Adroit, North American Review, Michigan Quarterly and others. Diya is an alumni of First Wave, the only full tuition hip-hop scholarship in the world, and is currently a Masters student at NYU’s Arts Politics program. She believes the poem is a clock. The poem makes time. Find more of her muses at diyabbas.com.
Mike Bond - piano
Mike Bond is a jazz pianist, composer, music director, and vocal coach known for his refined, expressive style and commitment to storytelling through music. His debut album, The Honorable Ones, reflects his philosophy of prioritizing beauty and personal expression over technical display. He began playing piano at age four and quickly excelled in classical music, winning a competition at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall at age six. However, the pressures of competitive performance led him to step away from classical training at age eleven. Around this time, he discovered the expressive possibilities of music on his own, particularly through Chopin, which sparked his creative independence. His jazz journey began in middle and high school near Princeton, New Jersey, where he played saxophone, clarinet, and piano in various ensembles. At fourteen, he began studying jazz piano with Jim Ridl, who introduced him to jazz improvisation and foundational techniques. Bond later attended Rutgers University, studying with renowned jazz pianist Stanley Cowell and receiving degrees in Jazz Performance and Music Education. During this period, he also studied with Mike LeDonne and immersed himself in the traditions of bebop and hard bop.
After graduating in 2012, Bond moved to New York City, where he developed professional connections through mentors such as Orrin Evans and bassist Curtis Lundy. He gained additional experience working with SmallsLIVE, learning production and networking with musicians.
As a performer, Bond has collaborated with notable jazz artists and Broadway performers, performed at major jazz venues and festivals, and appeared in projects such as Elle Magazine’s “Burn Ballad” series alongside popular recording artists. In addition to performing, he is an accomplished music director and conductor, earning a New Jersey Perry Award for Outstanding Musical Direction and working with institutions such as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and regional theaters. In 2024, he became a member of the Recording Academy.
Alongside his performance career, Bond works as a vocal coach, helping singers prepare for Broadway and regional theater. His artistic mission centers on storytelling, emotional authenticity, and encouraging others to express their humanity through music.
Leilani is an award-winning spoken word poet and multidisciplinary theater artist from Honolulu, now based in Brooklyn, New York. She has performed internationally and across NYC, including opening for Rupi Kaur and Rudy Francisco, and featuring at venues like the Bowery Poetry Club. A decorated slam poet, she has won the Brooklyn Poetry Slam at BRIC, the Honolulu Poetry Slam, and multiple slams at the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe, and ranked in the top 30 at the Womxn of the World Poetry Slam. She is the founder and curator of the nonprofit poetry collective Sakura Series.
Mansi Dahal is a writer from Biratnagar, Nepal, and a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program, where she received the Waletzky Fellowship for distinguished work. Her debut poetry collection, Women in Marigold, is forthcoming from Stillhouse Press in 2026. Her work has appeared in Poetry, New England Review, Southeast Review, Copper Nickel, The Margins, Colorado Review, Palette Poetry, and elsewhere. She was selected for the Poets & Writers 2026 “Get the Word Out” poetry fellows cohort and served as editor-in-chief of Some Kind of Opening.
Emdash AKA Emily Lu Gao (高璐璐) is a writer, artist, and daughter of Chinese immigrants. She writes to heal, grow, and decolonize. A 2025 LAMBDA Fellow, her work can be found in Poetry Northwest, Alocasia, Underblong, Tinderbox Poetry, Sine Theta, Poetry.Online, The Bellingham Review, Kweli Journal, and others. They’ve received funding from The Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, Jersey City Arts Council, Sundress Publications, Sunday Jump, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference and more. She has a BA in Asian American Studies from Pitzer College and a MFA in Poetry from Rutgers University-Newark. She has also learned equally as much if not more from community organizing and Southern California open mics. Until April 2026, her poem installation “Letter B” is on view at The Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles as part of the (Be)Spoken Poetry exhibit. When not writing, they are likely being unserious. (She/They)
Mỹ Tâm Huynh - vocals
Mỹ Tâm Huynh (pronounced: mee thum hwin), aka “mitamu,” is an interdisciplinary multi-award winning artist who draws inspiration from all forms of storytelling. The heart of her music is rooted in her Vietnamese American culture and Black American creative music. Many questions surrounding identity, culture, and values collide in her practice. These questions often become the music she wants to create.
Themes she has previously explored include fragmentation and identity, multiculturalism, and most recently, futurism. She takes pride in her songwriting and actively performs under “mitamu.” Her first studio album, sunflower in the east, released on October 30th, 2021. It is influenced by everything from jazz, new wave, and poetry. The record is a tribute to the trials and triumphs of growing up, learning to be vulnerable, and maintaining a creative existence in a commodified world. With poignant lyrics and creative production, it evokes nostalgia for the romance of youth within a more sophisticated future. This bittersweet vista is Huynhʼs own life, each song representing a significant moment and flowing with improvisation and poetry. In 2022, Huynh won 1st place at the Beta Hi-Fi Emerging Artist Festival Competition. She was selected out of 300 artists and performed among nine other finalists.
She is a self-described futurist and strives to create musical compositions that explore collective storytelling through improvisation and the relationship between visual art, poetry, music, and technology. She is planning to showcase her vision in her sophomore album, projected to release in 2025.
Huynh is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music (MM’22) and the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University (BM’18). Upon graduating, she accepted a position at the Manhattan School of Music as faculty for the Jazz Arts program. In 2025, Huynh was named the 2025 Van Lier Artist of Exceptional Merit by Asian American Arts Alliance. In 2023, Huynh was a winner of ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, ASCAP Phoebe Jacobs recipient, resident composer and teaching artist for Wildflower Composers and Asian Arts Initiative. In 2023 and 2024, she was named a semi-finalist of the Next Jazz Legacy program. Huynh is an alum of several renowned programs such as the Banff International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music and Diamond Research Scholars Program. Through these opportunities, she strives to further her vision of futurism and decolonization through art.
Marty Kenney - bass
Based in New York City, Marty Kenney is among his generation’s most versatile and in-demand upright and electric bassists. Originally born and raised in Palmer, Alaska, Marty received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado. He relocated to New York City in 2012, where he completed his Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music, studying under bassist Jay Anderson. Marty has performed with musicians such as Art Lande, Billy Drummond, Rich Perry, Steve Slagle, Allan Harris, Rez Abbasi, Steve Wilson, Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine, David Berkman, and the New York Standards Quartet featuring Tim Armacost and Gene Jackson. He has appeared on recordings by Steve Slagle, Allan Harris, Brian Krock’s liddle featuring Matt Mitchell, Olli Hirvonen featuring Water Smith III, and toured throughout the United States and Europe with Allan Harris, liddle, and New Helsinki, including performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, the Mosaic Festival in Romania, Umbria Winter Jazz Festival, Porretta Soul Festival, and many notable venues around the world including the Bimhuis, Shinjuku Pit Inn, Jazzclub Unterfahrt, Smalls Jazz Club, Mezzrow, Dazzle Jazz Club, Birdland, Red Rocks Amphitheater, and Blue Note NYC.
Malaya Sol - vocals
Malaya Sol is an independent Filipino artist based in New York City. A passionate vocalist and storyteller, she has found her home in Brooklyn after a decade of musical exploration that began in her birthplace of Zambales, Philippines. Her sound—shaped by years of traveling and performing across cultures as both a soloist and ensemble member—naturally evolved into a blend of World Music, Jazz, and Soul. Her performances are intimate yet expansive, as noted by AXS.com’s Allen Foster: “...an incredible excursion that traveled both around the globe and through time... Her tone is a divine gossamer spun from opulent gold fibers, and her intimate style of delivery is utterly captivating.”
Erena Terakubo - alto sax / flute
Erena Terakubo is a multi-talented saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator from Sapporo, Japan. She is an international sensation whose career performances stretch five different continents. While still in high school, Terakubo released her debut album North Bird, a collaboration with Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, Lee Pearson, and Peter Bernstein, which reached #1 on the Japanese jazz charts and was awarded Swing Journal's Gold Disc. Her broad experience has inspired five albums since. Recently, Terakubo has been sharing her expertise by teaching workshops at U.S. universities and touring Europe and Japan.
She has played notable venues and events such as International Jazz Day 2022 at the UN General Assembly Hall in New York, the Tokyo Jazz Festival, the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, Dizzy's Jazz Club Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smoke Jazz Club (where she led a band featuring special guest Louis Hayes), the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Beantown Jazz Festival, the Blue Note Tokyo, Blue Note New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Terakubo has performed in Burkina Faso, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria, Israel and Australia.
In addition to leading the Erena Terakubo quartet, she has appeared with a wide variety of ensembles. These ensembles include Jon Faddis and his All-Star Big Band, the Kenny Barron Quartet (with Kenny Barron, Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and Jonathan Black), the Mingus Big Band, and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she was a part of Bird Calls a special livestream event celebrating the centennial of Charlie Parker's birth presented by The Jazz Foundation of America. In 2023, she'll join the Ulysses Owens Jr. & Generation Y Band on a European Tour.
Terakubo has collaborated to produce a total of six albums. Since the debut of North Bird in 2010, she has released New York Attitude (with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Lee Pearson and Dominick Farinacci) and Burkina (with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, and Lenny White). Downbeat and Jazziz Magazines commended her 4th album, A Time for Love from Celler Live (with David Hazeltine, David Williams, and Lewis Nash). King Records, a major Japanese label, released her 5th album Little Girl Power with Mayuko Katakura, Motoi Kanamori, and Shinnosuke Takahashi, as well as her latest album Absolutely Live! Aside from these projects, Terakubo wrote the theme song High Touch (High Five) for a TV broadcast which aired in Hokkaido, Japan every day in 2018.
Terakubo was the first Japanese recipient of the prestigious Presidential Scholarship at Berklee College of Music, where she received her bachelor's degree in 2018. She will earn her master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music in May 2023.
Wen-Ting Wu - drums
NY-based drummer, composer, and educator Wen-Ting Wu is a diverse artist from Taiwan with a background ranging from jazz to contemporary music. She moved to New York in 2016 and earned her Master of Jazz Performance Degree in Queens College in 2018. Most recently, she has appeared at venues and concert halls including Smalls Jazz Club, Smoke Jazz Club, Minton’s Playhouse, Fat Cat, National Sawdust, Rockwood Music Hall, Bar Next Door, LeFrak Concert Hall, and Goldstein Theater.
She has performed at festivals both nationally and internationally including the Washington Square Music Festival, CUNY Jazz Festival, the NTCH Summer Jazz Festival (National Theater Concert Hall), Taichung Jazz Festival, Golden Melody Festival, GonGliao Rock Festival, the Wake-Up Music Festival, and the NTU Art Festival in Taiwan.
She has shared the stage with artists such as Frank Lacy, Joel Frahm, Richie Goods, Antoine Drye, Bertha Hope, Teymur Phell, Stacei Wei, Erena Terakubo. She was also a member of Golden Melody Award-winning band Chang & Lee and Hello Nico in Taiwan before she moved to New York.
This program is made possible in partnership with the AAPI Jazz Collective.
Asia Diaspora: AAPI Poets on Power and Presence
Host
Thu, May 07, 06:30 PM - 07:30 PM (EDT)
To be shared on approval (New York)
40 attendees
Asia Society and the AAPI Jazz Collective presents a vibrant event celebrating the poetry, song, and spoken word of Asian diaspora communities. As part of our celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, this event will weave together personal stories of migration, identity, and belonging with rhythmic expression and cultural fusion.
The AAPI Jazz Collective is an all-star ensemble featuring AAPI jazz artists throughout the tri-state area. Formed in 2019 by Taiwanese-American trombonist, Peter Lin, this ensemble strives to promote empathy through passionate musical expression as well as highlighting the band's cultural roots. The AAPI Jazz Collective performs jazz-infused arrangements of classic and traditional Asian songs, as well as exciting originals they appropriately label as “The New Asian Songbook”. Their debut album, titled Identity and released on Origin Records, is not only a proper representation of their long relationship together, but also a guiding light for many other young AAPI artists looking for inspiration. The AAPI Jazz Collective has performed at the AAPI Jazz Fest, the MET Museum Lunar New Year Celebration, the New York Asian Film Festival, as well as many other venues and festivals.
AAPI Jazz Collective Band
Peter Lin - trombone & bandleader / producer
Mike Bond - piano
Mỹ Tâm Huynh - vocals
Marty Kenney - bass
Malaya Sol - vocals
Erena Terakubo - alto sax / flute
Wen-Ting Wu - drums
Poets
Emdash AKA Emily Lu Gao (高璐璐)
Diya Abbas
Leilani
Mansi Dahal
About the Performers
Peter Lin - trombone & bandleader / producer
Peter Lin is a Taiwanese-American trombonist, producer, and educator in the tri-state area. A graduate from both William Paterson University (undergrad) and Rutgers University (graduate), Peter has performed with jazz luminaries including Slide Hampton, Ron Carter, Winard Harper, Charli Persip, JD Allen, Robin Eubanks, Steve Davis, and Steve Turre. He has also been included in notable ensembles such as the Roy Hargrove Big Band, Jimmy Heath Big Band, and Frank Lacy’s Tromboniverse. With three albums under his name, including his most recent release titled “Identity” on Origin Records, he continues to perform prolifically worldwide as both a leader and sideman. In addition to his musical endeavors, he is also the founder of Yardbird Entertainment, a music production company providing audio, video, and livestream services, as well as the producer of AAPI Jazz Fest, which is currently in its fourth year. He currently teaches at Jazz House Kids and New Jersey Youth Symphony as a trombone instructor and ensemble coach.
Diya Abbas is a Butch Pakistani writer from the Midwest. Her poems and essays can be found in Poetry Daily, The Offing, Sinister Wisdom, Adroit, North American Review, Michigan Quarterly and others. Diya is an alumni of First Wave, the only full tuition hip-hop scholarship in the world, and is currently a Masters student at NYU’s Arts Politics program. She believes the poem is a clock. The poem makes time. Find more of her muses at diyabbas.com.
Mike Bond - piano
Mike Bond is a jazz pianist, composer, music director, and vocal coach known for his refined, expressive style and commitment to storytelling through music. His debut album, The Honorable Ones, reflects his philosophy of prioritizing beauty and personal expression over technical display. He began playing piano at age four and quickly excelled in classical music, winning a competition at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall at age six. However, the pressures of competitive performance led him to step away from classical training at age eleven. Around this time, he discovered the expressive possibilities of music on his own, particularly through Chopin, which sparked his creative independence. His jazz journey began in middle and high school near Princeton, New Jersey, where he played saxophone, clarinet, and piano in various ensembles. At fourteen, he began studying jazz piano with Jim Ridl, who introduced him to jazz improvisation and foundational techniques. Bond later attended Rutgers University, studying with renowned jazz pianist Stanley Cowell and receiving degrees in Jazz Performance and Music Education. During this period, he also studied with Mike LeDonne and immersed himself in the traditions of bebop and hard bop.
After graduating in 2012, Bond moved to New York City, where he developed professional connections through mentors such as Orrin Evans and bassist Curtis Lundy. He gained additional experience working with SmallsLIVE, learning production and networking with musicians.
As a performer, Bond has collaborated with notable jazz artists and Broadway performers, performed at major jazz venues and festivals, and appeared in projects such as Elle Magazine’s “Burn Ballad” series alongside popular recording artists. In addition to performing, he is an accomplished music director and conductor, earning a New Jersey Perry Award for Outstanding Musical Direction and working with institutions such as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and regional theaters. In 2024, he became a member of the Recording Academy.
Alongside his performance career, Bond works as a vocal coach, helping singers prepare for Broadway and regional theater. His artistic mission centers on storytelling, emotional authenticity, and encouraging others to express their humanity through music.
Leilani is an award-winning spoken word poet and multidisciplinary theater artist from Honolulu, now based in Brooklyn, New York. She has performed internationally and across NYC, including opening for Rupi Kaur and Rudy Francisco, and featuring at venues like the Bowery Poetry Club. A decorated slam poet, she has won the Brooklyn Poetry Slam at BRIC, the Honolulu Poetry Slam, and multiple slams at the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe, and ranked in the top 30 at the Womxn of the World Poetry Slam. She is the founder and curator of the nonprofit poetry collective Sakura Series.
Mansi Dahal is a writer from Biratnagar, Nepal, and a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program, where she received the Waletzky Fellowship for distinguished work. Her debut poetry collection, Women in Marigold, is forthcoming from Stillhouse Press in 2026. Her work has appeared in Poetry, New England Review, Southeast Review, Copper Nickel, The Margins, Colorado Review, Palette Poetry, and elsewhere. She was selected for the Poets & Writers 2026 “Get the Word Out” poetry fellows cohort and served as editor-in-chief of Some Kind of Opening.
Emdash AKA Emily Lu Gao (高璐璐) is a writer, artist, and daughter of Chinese immigrants. She writes to heal, grow, and decolonize. A 2025 LAMBDA Fellow, her work can be found in Poetry Northwest, Alocasia, Underblong, Tinderbox Poetry, Sine Theta, Poetry.Online, The Bellingham Review, Kweli Journal, and others. They’ve received funding from The Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, Jersey City Arts Council, Sundress Publications, Sunday Jump, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference and more. She has a BA in Asian American Studies from Pitzer College and a MFA in Poetry from Rutgers University-Newark. She has also learned equally as much if not more from community organizing and Southern California open mics. Until April 2026, her poem installation “Letter B” is on view at The Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles as part of the (Be)Spoken Poetry exhibit. When not writing, they are likely being unserious. (She/They)
Mỹ Tâm Huynh - vocals
Mỹ Tâm Huynh (pronounced: mee thum hwin), aka “mitamu,” is an interdisciplinary multi-award winning artist who draws inspiration from all forms of storytelling. The heart of her music is rooted in her Vietnamese American culture and Black American creative music. Many questions surrounding identity, culture, and values collide in her practice. These questions often become the music she wants to create.
Themes she has previously explored include fragmentation and identity, multiculturalism, and most recently, futurism. She takes pride in her songwriting and actively performs under “mitamu.” Her first studio album, sunflower in the east, released on October 30th, 2021. It is influenced by everything from jazz, new wave, and poetry. The record is a tribute to the trials and triumphs of growing up, learning to be vulnerable, and maintaining a creative existence in a commodified world. With poignant lyrics and creative production, it evokes nostalgia for the romance of youth within a more sophisticated future. This bittersweet vista is Huynhʼs own life, each song representing a significant moment and flowing with improvisation and poetry. In 2022, Huynh won 1st place at the Beta Hi-Fi Emerging Artist Festival Competition. She was selected out of 300 artists and performed among nine other finalists.
She is a self-described futurist and strives to create musical compositions that explore collective storytelling through improvisation and the relationship between visual art, poetry, music, and technology. She is planning to showcase her vision in her sophomore album, projected to release in 2025.
Huynh is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music (MM’22) and the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University (BM’18). Upon graduating, she accepted a position at the Manhattan School of Music as faculty for the Jazz Arts program. In 2025, Huynh was named the 2025 Van Lier Artist of Exceptional Merit by Asian American Arts Alliance. In 2023, Huynh was a winner of ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, ASCAP Phoebe Jacobs recipient, resident composer and teaching artist for Wildflower Composers and Asian Arts Initiative. In 2023 and 2024, she was named a semi-finalist of the Next Jazz Legacy program. Huynh is an alum of several renowned programs such as the Banff International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music and Diamond Research Scholars Program. Through these opportunities, she strives to further her vision of futurism and decolonization through art.
Marty Kenney - bass
Based in New York City, Marty Kenney is among his generation’s most versatile and in-demand upright and electric bassists. Originally born and raised in Palmer, Alaska, Marty received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado. He relocated to New York City in 2012, where he completed his Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music, studying under bassist Jay Anderson. Marty has performed with musicians such as Art Lande, Billy Drummond, Rich Perry, Steve Slagle, Allan Harris, Rez Abbasi, Steve Wilson, Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine, David Berkman, and the New York Standards Quartet featuring Tim Armacost and Gene Jackson. He has appeared on recordings by Steve Slagle, Allan Harris, Brian Krock’s liddle featuring Matt Mitchell, Olli Hirvonen featuring Water Smith III, and toured throughout the United States and Europe with Allan Harris, liddle, and New Helsinki, including performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, the Mosaic Festival in Romania, Umbria Winter Jazz Festival, Porretta Soul Festival, and many notable venues around the world including the Bimhuis, Shinjuku Pit Inn, Jazzclub Unterfahrt, Smalls Jazz Club, Mezzrow, Dazzle Jazz Club, Birdland, Red Rocks Amphitheater, and Blue Note NYC.
Malaya Sol - vocals
Malaya Sol is an independent Filipino artist based in New York City. A passionate vocalist and storyteller, she has found her home in Brooklyn after a decade of musical exploration that began in her birthplace of Zambales, Philippines. Her sound—shaped by years of traveling and performing across cultures as both a soloist and ensemble member—naturally evolved into a blend of World Music, Jazz, and Soul. Her performances are intimate yet expansive, as noted by AXS.com’s Allen Foster: “...an incredible excursion that traveled both around the globe and through time... Her tone is a divine gossamer spun from opulent gold fibers, and her intimate style of delivery is utterly captivating.”
Erena Terakubo - alto sax / flute
Erena Terakubo is a multi-talented saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator from Sapporo, Japan. She is an international sensation whose career performances stretch five different continents. While still in high school, Terakubo released her debut album North Bird, a collaboration with Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, Lee Pearson, and Peter Bernstein, which reached #1 on the Japanese jazz charts and was awarded Swing Journal's Gold Disc. Her broad experience has inspired five albums since. Recently, Terakubo has been sharing her expertise by teaching workshops at U.S. universities and touring Europe and Japan.
She has played notable venues and events such as International Jazz Day 2022 at the UN General Assembly Hall in New York, the Tokyo Jazz Festival, the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, Dizzy's Jazz Club Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smoke Jazz Club (where she led a band featuring special guest Louis Hayes), the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Beantown Jazz Festival, the Blue Note Tokyo, Blue Note New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Terakubo has performed in Burkina Faso, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria, Israel and Australia.
In addition to leading the Erena Terakubo quartet, she has appeared with a wide variety of ensembles. These ensembles include Jon Faddis and his All-Star Big Band, the Kenny Barron Quartet (with Kenny Barron, Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and Jonathan Black), the Mingus Big Band, and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she was a part of Bird Calls a special livestream event celebrating the centennial of Charlie Parker's birth presented by The Jazz Foundation of America. In 2023, she'll join the Ulysses Owens Jr. & Generation Y Band on a European Tour.
Terakubo has collaborated to produce a total of six albums. Since the debut of North Bird in 2010, she has released New York Attitude (with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Lee Pearson and Dominick Farinacci) and Burkina (with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, and Lenny White). Downbeat and Jazziz Magazines commended her 4th album, A Time for Love from Celler Live (with David Hazeltine, David Williams, and Lewis Nash). King Records, a major Japanese label, released her 5th album Little Girl Power with Mayuko Katakura, Motoi Kanamori, and Shinnosuke Takahashi, as well as her latest album Absolutely Live! Aside from these projects, Terakubo wrote the theme song High Touch (High Five) for a TV broadcast which aired in Hokkaido, Japan every day in 2018.
Terakubo was the first Japanese recipient of the prestigious Presidential Scholarship at Berklee College of Music, where she received her bachelor's degree in 2018. She will earn her master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music in May 2023.
Wen-Ting Wu - drums
NY-based drummer, composer, and educator Wen-Ting Wu is a diverse artist from Taiwan with a background ranging from jazz to contemporary music. She moved to New York in 2016 and earned her Master of Jazz Performance Degree in Queens College in 2018. Most recently, she has appeared at venues and concert halls including Smalls Jazz Club, Smoke Jazz Club, Minton’s Playhouse, Fat Cat, National Sawdust, Rockwood Music Hall, Bar Next Door, LeFrak Concert Hall, and Goldstein Theater.
She has performed at festivals both nationally and internationally including the Washington Square Music Festival, CUNY Jazz Festival, the NTCH Summer Jazz Festival (National Theater Concert Hall), Taichung Jazz Festival, Golden Melody Festival, GonGliao Rock Festival, the Wake-Up Music Festival, and the NTU Art Festival in Taiwan.
She has shared the stage with artists such as Frank Lacy, Joel Frahm, Richie Goods, Antoine Drye, Bertha Hope, Teymur Phell, Stacei Wei, Erena Terakubo. She was also a member of Golden Melody Award-winning band Chang & Lee and Hello Nico in Taiwan before she moved to New York.
This program is made possible in partnership with the AAPI Jazz Collective.