Contemporary East is a nonprofit that aims to showcase the beauty of Eastern expression in improvisational music and provide opportunities for artists of diverse backgrounds across disciplines to converse and create together.

Composer, instrumentalist, and former music director of legendary Japanese traditional drum group Kodo, Kaoru Watanabe, shares solo pieces on the Shinbone (Japanese traditional flute) and Taiko (Japanese traditional drum). His work is rooted in traditional Japanese performing arts and infused with experimental and improvisational elements.

Yoon-Ji Lee, a Korean composer and Guggenheim Fellowship awardee, is a creator of unconventional and non-linear compositions. Marked by a dynamic emphasis on rapid juxtaposition and transformation of disparate elements, her compositions intricately weave together acoustic and electroacoustic mediums. Yoon-Ji Lee will be joined by Satoshi Takeishi, a highly regarded Japanese-American drummer and percussionist known for his innovative and dynamic approach to rhythm.

Yoon-Ji Lee electronics, composer
Satoshi Takeishi percussion
Shoko Nagai piano, accordion
Dan Lippel electric, acoustic, microtonal guitar
Bang Geul Han visual art

Contemporary East was founded by Yuko Fujiyama, a renowned classically trained pianist whose improvisational compositions and collaborations have established her as an essential part of the experimental scene in New York City since 90s. During her long career, she has performed with scores of musicians and has always had an interest in the work of Asian and Asian American artists who bring their particular instruments, training and sensibility to expand the world of innovative music. Many of these, veterans and young artists alike, should be better known to larger audiences.