Jill of all trades!! by Kim Nazarian (New York Voices)
Mariko was born in Kani City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan.
After graduating from Osaka University with a Bachelor of literature degree, Mariko received a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. There she focused on jazz vocal and compositional techniques, graduating Summa Cum Laude in the Professional Music Major in Winter 2009. She was also named to the Dean’s List, a list of top students.
While attending Berklee College of Music, she received the New York Voices Award at the New York Voices Summer Camp. Mariko was also a member of the Boston Jazz Voices and performed in many concerts in the Boston area.
After returning to Japan, Mariko won the Fujitsu Ten Prize at the 11th Kobe Jazz Queen Contest. She also won the Grand Prize at the 5th Saitama Shin Toshin Jazz Vocal Contest. She is known for her solid singing skills and clear, crisp voice. Mariko has released three CDs under her own name and has performed on many others.
In 2014, she was the only Asian semi-finalist in the Internationala Jazz Vocal Competition, an international jazz vocal competition held in Lithuania. She spent a wonderful time with jazz singers from all over the world. (She later invited Estonian jazz singer Christian Schoenberg for a concert in 2016.)
Mariko was selected by her hometown, Kani City, for the “Meet the First Class Day Project,” where she filled a 1,000-seat concert hall to rapturous applause. She has also performed in many other concerts.
Her musical activities are not limited to her specialty of jazz performance; her life’s work also includes “children’s songs and shoka jazz”, which combines the beauty of the Japanese language with jazz. Her singing videos have been viewed more than 30 million times. (As of November 2024)
The lecture videos of Japanese songs in English for overseas audiences interested in Japan have also been well received.
Since the 2017 academic year, Mariko has also been teaching
Since the 2017 academic year, Mariko has also been teaching younger students as a part-time lecturer at Nagoya University of Arts. (She retired in 2022).
In addition, Mariko has been involved from the planning and development stage of the fretted violin “Freffy” developed by Yuma Kachi, a jazz violinist also from Gifu Prefecture, and has been teaching the nation’s first violin class for public elementary schools at Nakanokata Elementary School in Ena City, Gifu Prefecture, since fiscal 2017. (The violin class will end in 2019.)
Mariko and Yuma are working to promote music education that allows free self-expression through improvisation, as well as performing and teaching younger students, mainly in Nagoya.
Mariko’s Music
You can watch my music videos on YouTube.
There is another YouTube channel which is called “Sato no Uta”.
Jazz improvisation – Scat singing
Online course at Udemy
Let’s try scat singing – Jazz vocal improvisation for singers
In this program, I’d like to tell you the secrets of “scat singing”. This is for the Jazz singers, especially for the beginners.
For beginners, I think that enjoying scat singing is one of the most important elements in jazz. Also, you can find many new Jazz elements in this course. These experiences will make your skill better! Let’s get started. (This course is for beginners, so there is no lesson about modes and scales. )
- What is “scat singing”?
- Let’s try the “Call and response” exercise and “chord tone singing”.
- let’s try “the embellishment of the melody”.
- Let’s cover the solos by the famous Jazz players.
- You can sing a song with many high-quality instrumental sing-along karaoke BGM tracks!
You can order your own music charts and karaoke soundtracks!
Have you ever experienced that jazz sheet music does not match your range and makes it difficult to sing?
Usually, you write your own transposed sheet music in your own key, but some people find it difficult to do this on their own.
I can figure out your correct key and write the music for you. I can handle many jazz standard songs, and I can also handle non-jazz songs such as Beatles and Stevie Wonder. (Price depends on your order. Please feel free to contact me for more information.)
Especially for the jazz standard songs, I can create a a live jazz band karaoke soundtrack for you. It must be a great help for your practice.
I can also answer other orders on a case-by-case basis. In other words, if you’re interested in trying your hand at jazz music.
Feel free to contact me!
