Miho Wada is a Japanese-born jazz musician from New Zealand. She plays flute and both alto and tenor saxophone, and is a founding member of Miho's Jazz Orchestra, which has toured internationally. She has been nicknamed "the flute ninja" for her fast playing style.

Early life

Born in Japan, Wada began taking piano lessons at the age of four. In 1995, Wada's father – an enthusiastic fan of New Zealand rugby and yachting – decided to move the family to

Burnside, Christchurch Burnside is a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, located southeast of Christchurch International Airport. As with most suburbs in Christchurch, it has no defined boundaries and is a general area. History Burnside was originally part of a far ...

in New Zealand. When Wada's parents hired a new piano teacher for her, their chosen instructor also happened to play flute, which was how Wada first took an interest in the instrument.

Career

After earning a Bachelor of Music degree, Wada moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, to pursue further study at the

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

. In 2007, Wada was selected to attend a Swiss summer academy for classical flute held by virtuoso flautist

Sir James Galway Sir James Galway (born 8 December 1939) is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast, nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Flute". He established an international career as a solo flute player. In 2005, he received the Brit Award for Outstand ...

. Despite being excited at the opportunity, Wada found herself feeling out of place among the other students at the academy, and afterwards began exploring jazz and world music venues. Meeting a group of Cuban musicians, Wada eventually decided to travel to Cuba, where she found a new flute teacher:

"I had to relearn everything. After three months, I totally got it. It was all about the blood flow, the rhythm of the blood. It was about finding a way of playing the flute that was most natural to me. I found my passion as a musician and what made me happy."

Wada has been nicknamed "the flute ninja" for her ability to play very fast music on the flute, a skill she attributes to her musical training in Cuba. In addition to playing flute, she also plays alto and tenor saxophone. In 2009, Wada returned to New Zealand and settled down in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. Soon afterwards, she formed a punk-rock-ska band called Miho Wada and the Shit Fight, and the ensemble toured for the next couple of years. In 2011, she formed the new six-person band Miho's Jazz Orchestra, and the group raised funds for

Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

recovery work. Miho's Jazz Orchestra has continued to perform steadily since then, touring New Zealand, Australia and Japan, and the group's musical style is described as "a combination of Afro-Cuban and

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

, influenced by contemporary jazz".

Discography

Miho's Jazz Orchestra

* ''Para Tí'' (2011) * ''Wanderland'' (2012) * ''EXIT 621'' (2013) * ''Mystery Banana'' (2014) * ''Memphis Dreamin (2014) * ''Live at the Lab'' (2014) * ''Bumpy Road'' (2015) * ''New World Sympathy'' (2016)

Personal life

Wada is married to violinist Pascal Roggen, who plays as part of Miho's Jazz Orchestra. In 2015, Wada gave birth to a son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wada, Miho Japanese women musicians New Zealand women musicians Women flautists Jazz alto saxophonists Jazz tenor saxophonists Japanese jazz saxophonists Japanese jazz flautists New Zealand jazz musicians 21st-century New Zealand musicians People from Christchurch New Zealand people of Japanese descent Japanese emigrants to New Zealand Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century saxophonists Women jazz saxophonists 21st-century women musicians 21st-century flautists