Kojiro Umezaki

Kojiro Umezaki (梅崎 康二郎) is a shakuhachi player and composer who often develops and employs media and technology systems for live performance.

Noted by The New York Times as a “virtuosic, deeply expressive shakuhachi player and composer” and by the Los Angeles Times as one of the “better kept secrets of Southern California music,” Umezaki has performed regularly with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2001. With the ensemble, he appears on multiple recordings including the Grammy Award-winning Sing Me Home, A Playlist Without Borders, Off the Map, and the Grammy-nominated documentary film The Music of Strangers (2015), directed by Morgan Neville.

His recordings as performer, composer, and/or producer include Brooklyn Rider’s Dominant Curve, Yo-Yo Ma’s Appassionato, Nicole Mitchell’s Mandorla Awakening II, Kei Akagi’s Aqua Puzzle, The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan (Smithsonian Folkways), and Huun-Huur-Tu’s Ancestors Call. His album of original work, (Cycles), was released by In a Circle Records in 2014, followed by 流方 Flow, a collaborative album with pipa virtuoso Wu Man, in 2021.

A developer of real-time music and media systems, Umezaki’s creative work explores intersections of tradition and technology, with a focus on intercultural practices across historic Silk Road regions. Recent directions include robotics, fabrication, and collaborations with youth on Northern Cheyenne lands in Lame Deer.

He holds a degree in electro-acoustic music from Dartmouth College.