
***********************************************************
The second concert of this year's "Jazz Up" series will feature versatile Japanese singer-pianist Eriko Ishihara.
She will perform with Colin Oxley (guitar), Koji Yasuda (bass) and Sumioto Oi (drums) at the Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall on October 19.
Eriko Ishihara started piano lessons at age four and had been steeped in classical music when she was a child. She began to practise composition and transcribing jazz solos in her teens. At 18 she attended Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo. At the same time she also acquired invaluable experience by playing at a local jazz club. She then studied and graduated at the Guildhall School of Music in London and decided that jazz was where her heart lay.
The Tokyo-born Ishihara has become increasingly involved in the British jazz scene. She formed her own band, which made its debut in the album "A Thousand Winds" in 2003. Today, she is a jazz pianist and singer, regularly working with some of the UK's finest jazz musicians.
In her album, "This Crazy Town", Ishihara was involved in music production as a composer, an arranger and lyricist. Her voice has a feminine, tender quality that ensures her recordings as some of the most sought-after for audiophiles in Hong Kong and Japan.
"Jazz Up: Eriko Ishihara" is presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Tickets priced at $150, $300 and $400 are now available at URBTIX outlets, while senior citizens, people with disabilities, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients may have 50% off (limited quotas for students and CSSA recipients on a first-come, first-served basis). 10% discount applies to Friends of LCSD performing venues, or a single purchase of the concert with another Jazz Up programme "Roy Hargrove Quintet" on September 7.
Programme enquiries, please call 2268 7321 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/cp. Ticketing enquiries and reservations can be made on 2734 9009 and credit card telephone bookings on 2111 5999. Tickets can also be booked online at www.urbtix.hk.
Ends/Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:36
NNNN