Composer and musician Kaoru Watanabe grounds his performance in traditional Japanese music while inhabiting a startling combination of musical worlds. He specializes in transverse bamboo flutes such as the shinobue, noh kan, ryuteki, and various Japanese percussion. He explores the sounds of his Japanese instruments within varying contexts in an effort to understand what makes them special and how they can blend with rhythms, other instruments, and melodies that may not be Japanese.
Watanabe is renowned for his ability to collaborate with a diverse array of visionary international artists such as Jason Moran, Yo-Yo Ma and Silkroad, Spanish flamenco dancer Eva Yerbabuena, visual artists Simone Leigh and Alyson Shotz, calligrapher Koji Kakinuma, Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, and so many more. He is also an advisor, composer, and featured musician on the Oscar-nominated score of Wes Anderson’s film Isle of Dogs and was a guest artist on the Silkroad's Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home.
