Berklee Students to Play at New York's Famed Blue Note Jazz Club

Berklee Scholarship Jazz Ensemble To Perform Music from the Mainstream Jazz "Blue Note" Era

	Press: to inquire about photo availability and usage, please e-mail us.
	Left to right: Mayuko Katakura, Paul Vinton, Takuji Yamada, Michael Birnbryer,Yoshifumi Nihonmatsu
	Photo by Nick Balkin

The Berklee Scholarship Jazz Ensemble will perform mainstream jazz, as well as compositions by Wayne Shorter from his Art Blakey years, on Monday, May 12, 2003, at the famed Blue Note Jazz Club, 131 West 3rd Street, in New York City. The group will play two shows, at 8:00 and 10:30 p.m. For ticket information, contact the Blue Note at 212-475-8592, or visit their website at www.bluenote.net. The show will be broadcast live on the web, at the sirius.com website.

There will be a reception at the Blue Note that night for Berklee alumni and guests beginning at 6:30 p.m. To register for the alumni event, please contact Adrian Ross at aeross@berklee.edu.

Michael Birnbryer '05 (West Covina, CA), tenor sax
Michael began playing alto saxophone at age 12, switching to tenor during his senior year of high school. While still a student at Citrus College in Glendora, CA, in 1999, he was a featured soloist with Carnival Cruise Line's Atlantis Lounge Orchestra. That summer he recorded and performed with the Inland Empire Orchestra on the rock 'n' roll/hip-hop Vans Warped Tour, performing all over the US and Canada for six weeks. Michael also toured Japan and Hawaii with the Citrus College "Blue Note" Orchestra, whose 2000 CD Tribute to Duke Ellington received an award from Down Beat Magazine. In June 2000, Michael received an Associate of Arts in Music degree, with special emphasis in Jazz Performance, from Citrus College. Since coming to Berklee in 2001, Michael has been the recipient of numerous scholarships, and in January 2003, he released his own CD, Home At Last.

Demian Cabaud '03 (Buenos Aires, Argentina), bass
Born in Argentina, Demian graduated from the Institute of Technological Contemporary Music, and later from the Berklee International Network (BIN) school in Argentina. He has played in many national festivals and toured all over Argentina with jazz, Latin, and funk bands, as well as various chamber orchestras. In 2000, Demian received an Award of Excellence from the Souza Lima Conservatory in San Pablo, Brazil. In 2001 he received a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he has had the opportunity to study and play with some of the world's most accomplished jazz musicians, including Joe Lovano, Dave Samuels, Hal Crook, Dave Santoro, John Lockwood, and George Garzone. Active on the Boston music scene, Demian has also performed at the Litchfield, CT Jazz Festival. In June, he will tour with the Julians Augier Quartet in France, and the Miguel Fernandez Quintet in Spain.

Press: to inquire about photo availability and usage, please e-mail us. Left to right: Takuji Yamada, Michael Birnbryer, Mayuko Katakura, Paul Vinton, Yoshifumi Nihonmatsu Photo by Nick Balkin

Mayuko Katakura '04 (Miyagi, Japan), piano
Born in Sendai, Japan, the daughter of two jazz musicians, Mayuko Katakura seemingly has jazz in her DNA. She began playing piano at age five, and through her childhood studied mostly classical music. As she got older, Thelonious Monk became her main influence. While still a student at Sezoku Gakuen Junior College, she was invited to join a band with former Berklee faculty member Bob Zung and alumnus Masakiko Osaka. After graduating from Senzoku, Mayuko performed with Seiichi Nakamura, Kazunori Sawada, and many other jazz musicians in Japan. Mayuko came to Boston in the fall of 2003 to study at Berklee and will graduate next year.

Yoshifumi Nihonmatsu '03 (Fukushima, Japan), drums
Influenced by his mother, who is a singer, Yoshifumi began formal lessons on piano when he was three years old. He started playing drums and classical percussion when he was a junior in high school. In 1994, Yoshifumi won first prize in the All Japan Ensemble Competition and did a concert tour of Australia. In 1997, he enrolled in Senzoku Gakuen Junior College to study Jazz. He has performed all over Japan as a professional musician. In 2001, he received a scholarship to attend Berklee, where he has studied with Jamey Haddad and Joe Hunt. A Professional Music major, Yoshifumi performs many gigs around Boston.

Paul Vinton '04 (Wilkes Barre, PA), guitar
Paul, who only began playing guitar at age 14, was introduced to jazz at age 16 by guitarist, and Berklee faculty member, Richie Hart. In 2000, Paul had the opportunity to sit in with George Benson at Birdland for a Jack McDuff benefit, and realized then that he wanted to be a musician. In 2001, Paul entered Berklee, where he has studied with Hart, and played in ensembles with George Garzone, Phil Wilson, and Dave Santoro. He's also studied privately with guitarist Peter Bernstein. As a member of Phil Wilson's Rainbow Band, Paul has performed with guest vocalists Kevin Mahogany and Rebecca Parris, and traveled to Hollywood to play in "Autumn's Eve: A Tribute to Woody Herman." He also traveled to Los Angeles, Denver, and Seattle on Berklee's 2002 World Scholarship Tour. Paul was one of the featured guitarists during Berklee's Guitar Week 2003 in April.

Takuji Yamada '04 (Sapporo, Japan), alto sax
Takuji started playing keyboard at age four, and drums at age ten. When he entered junior high school, he joined a woodwind orchestra club and started playing alto saxophone. He attended Senzoku Gakuen Junior College, whose jazz faculty is comprised of many Berklee graduates, including Bob Zung, Koichi Osamu, and Masahiko Osaka. Takuji studied saxophone and bass clarinet with Seiichi Nakamura. He entered Berklee last fall, and has studied with sax greats Dino Govoni and Andy McGhee.

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over half a century, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry "who's who" of alumni, Berklee is the world's premier learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow.

Media, please contact:

Toni Ballard
Publicist
Office of Public Information
Tel. 617-747-2247
Fax: 617-247-8788
tballard@berklee.edu