(born November 9, 1975), is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

performer.

Early life

Kanda began playing trombone at the age of 10 in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan, and attended the Toho High School of Music, where she won first prize in a Japanese national competition. After high school, she moved to the United States and earned a

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

from the

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educatio ...

where she studied with James DeSano, principal trombone of the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Sev ...

. She was first hired as a professional trombonist by the

Albany Symphony Orchestra The Albany Symphony Orchestra is a professional symphony orchestra based in Albany, New York. Founded in 1930 as the People's Orchestra of Albany by Italian-born conductor John Carabella, the Albany Symphony is the oldest professional symphony ...

in 1997, and then worked for the

Rochester Philharmonic The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is an American orchestra based in the city of Rochester, New York. Its primary concert venue is the Eastman Theatre at the Eastman School of Music. History George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak Company ...

. From 2004 to 2008, she served on the board of directors for the International Trombone Association.

Current

Kanda is currently the principal trombonist with the

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The orchestra performs primarily at the Bradley Symphony Center in Allen-Bradley Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for Florentine ...

(MSO) in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, a position she won in 2002 (out of a field of 76 applicants for the position, only seven of whom were female).

Andreas Delfs Andreas Delfs (born 30 August 1959) is a German Conductor (music), conductor. He is the music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor laureate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Biography Delfs was born in Flensburg, We ...

was the Music Director of the MSO at the time. Megumi Kanda is an Artist and Clinician with Greenhoe Trombones, a company founded by her (retired) colleague in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Gary Greenhoe. Kanda plays a Greenhoe GC4-1R Tenor Trombone. Kanda is married to Dietrich Hemann, with whom she has three children.

Discography

Kanda is featured on the following albums (all tracks of each album, unless otherwise noted).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanda, Megumi 1975 births Japanese women musicians Japanese trombonists Living people Cleveland Institute of Music alumni 21st-century Japanese women musicians