Yoko Kanno | Profile Yoko Kanno was born March 18, 1964 in Miyagi Prefecture. She began playing piano at an early age, and in 1974 won a Yamaha sponsored piano competition, becoming the youngest person ever to do so. After winning a number of similar competitions, she moved to Paris to study at the Conservatore National Superieur de Musique de Danse de Paris. She later attended Japan’s Waseda University and joined the jazz circle there. Although she played for awhile in the band Testu 100% with Tetsu Sugihara, she became better known for her work as a composer for animation soundtracks, video games, films, television and commercials. Among the more popular anime she has worked on are Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Macross Plus, Please Save My Earth, Escaflowne, Turn A-Gundam and Wolf’s Rain. She collaborated with her husband, cellist and fellow composer Hijame Mizoguchi, on Please Save My Earth and Escalowne. For Cowboy Bebop she created the band the Seatbelts. Yoko Kanno has also written for the movies Mizu No Onna, Shimozuma Monogatari, Boku Wa Benkyo Dekinai, the TV dramas Koko Kyoshi, Lenakiko, Hoshi No Kinka and Pure, as well as for advertisements for Shiseido, JR, Suntory and KDDI. In addition she has composed for albums by pop singers Akino Arai, Kyoko Koizumi, Imai Miki and Maya Sakamoto. Yoko Kanno has recorded just one album under her own name, 1998’s Song to Fly. She composes in a variety of styles, and claims not to think in terms of genres - just about what is appropriate for what she is working on. She has worked with a number of well known hired vocalists including Crystal Kay (a major star in Japan), Joyce (a highly regarded Brazilian singer), Donna Burke (an Australian jazz and session singer), and Steve Conte (of the New Jersey based band Company of Wolves, who recently toured as guitarist for the New York Dolls). There is some speculation that the singer listed as Gabriela Robin is in fact Kanno herself, as she has never made a public appearance and there seems to be no other record of her. Given that Yoko Kanno’s music is used in number of hit anime which have been sold internationally, she has gained a substantial following beyond Japanese shores. She appeared at the American anime oriented events Otakon and Anime Expo in 1999, and again at Anime Expo in 2002. by Keith Cahoon
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