Junichiro Mataga

Junichiro Mataga is a Jazz Pianist, Jazz Composer, Arranger, and Educator based in New York City. He grew up in Niigata, Japan. He began playing piano when at six years old. He moved to Tokyo after graduating high school and began studying Jazz Piano in the University Jazz Club. He graduated from The University of Electro-Communications with a major in Master of Engineering and then worked as a Sound and Vibration Researcher at the Central Research Lab of NEC Corporation. In parallel, he was active in the Jazz scene in Tokyo, Japan. He performed in his leader band, the big band “Shiny Stockings”, the gospel band “7season”, and the jazz quartet “Beyond the Cinema”. His career took a major turning point in 2019 when he moved to New York and began taking courses in the Jazz major program at Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College in New York City. He studied with world-renowned musicians such as David Berkman, Jeb Patton, Antonio Hart, Michael Mossman, Dennis Mackrel, Tim Armacost, and many others. He graduated from ACSM in May 2020. He is now working as a freelance musician in NYC. In 2021, he released his debut piano trio album "Sketches", and the album got the Silver Medal/Outstanding Achievement at Global Music Awards of Composition.

Awards

"Escher's Staircase (from Landscape)" - Grand Prize Winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest 2024 (Jazz Category), "Landscape" - Silver Medal/Outstanding Achievement, Global Music Awards (Jazz)(2024), Top Albums of the Year 2021 "Junichiro Mataga/Sketches", Silver Medal/Outstanding Achievement, Global Music Awards (Composition)(2021), 2nd Niigata Jazz Competition, The first Prize of Jazz Combo Division, Niigata, Japan (2013) Marvin Hamlisch Award, Aaron Copland School of Music, New York (2019)

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