Etsuko Kimura, modern music composer and pianist.

Etsuko Kimre Pederson spelled out.

My new CD -- Modern Music for Two and Three Pianos is available. It was the culmination of a year's worth of effort. I composed all of the pieces on the CD. I performed on all of the pieces on the CD, and conducted the other players. The compositions are all inspired by the natural world around us. It was funded by a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award that I received last year. We are selling the CD locally, but we hope to get it up on the major download sites and Amazon.com. You may contact me via this webpages email address if you're interested in a copy.

Etsuko with Fairbanks Jazz Hokkaido stage Etsuko rocketeer with Orion payload

On August 3, my jazz quartet, Fairbanks Jazz performed at the Tanana Valley Fair. The weather was nice and the two different performances were well attended. In the second performance, a Australian jazz reed man from Brisbane on vacationing in Alaska this summer joined us on stage with his clarinet. Unexpected addition to the gig. In July I performed with the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival (FSAF) Afro-Cuban Band at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.

In addition to the all consuming CD project, this past year, I've been performing episodically around Fairbanks with jazz friends.

In August last year my composition Peace of Nature was released in Japan as part of the songwriters CD series "We Are All One".

In May 2013, I was awarded a second Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award for music composition at a ceremony at the Alaska Performing Arts in Anchorage, Alaska. My first CD recording "Modern Music for Two Pianos" was funded in part by my first Rasmuson Foundation award.

In April 2013, I performed at the UAF Spring Jazz Fest.

On February 7th, I performed my piece Tsunami I at the 2013 UAF New Music Festival. The piece featured three pianos and three taiko drums.

I performed with the UAF Jazz Big Band last December (2012). The concert featuring the Ellington-Strayhorn arrangement of the music of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker.

My August 2012 concert in Fairbanks at the UAF Davis Concert Hall was well attended. The concert featured my original modern compositions for two pianos, but including two pieces for three pianos. Two of my pieces were be performed with modern dance. One piece, Aurora Night II featured an aurora video presentation by my husband. Still on other pieces, I was joined by a vocalist, a violinist, a percussionist, and a trumpeter.

I recently finished recording a composition of mine -- Fall in Alaska. It's my latest contribution to the We Are All One CD series".

In April, I performed at the 2012 UAF Spring Jazz Festival. In May, I performed at the 2012 UAF Jazz Big Band's spring concert. As of March 19, 2012 my CD, Modern Music for Two Pianos is available through Amazon. (You can read my CD's liner notes there!) On March 3, 2012, I performed at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival as a member of the UAF jazz band. On February 3, 2012, I performed my composition -- "A Shadow of Mind" at the New Music Festival, with Paul Krejci, at the Davis Concert Hall, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Hagi Hall concert, Etsuko, and Etsuko with friend Paul Krejci at the pianos,DJ KSUA Radio

In January 2012, while in Sendai, Japan, I presented the money I raised from my CD sales to the President of Tohoku University. Thanks to those who purchased my CD! Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan was damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Tohoku University is a sister institute to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I performed at Tohoku University in May 2010.

My jazz combo -- The Etsuko Kimura Quartet is currently idle -- a victim of the continued weak economy. I performed my modern music for two pianos in concert with Paul Krejci in 2011 at the Davis Concert Hall, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and at Egan Lecture Hall at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, Alaska.

On July 7th, 2011, I performed my compositions for two pianos in a concert with Paul at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Davis Concert Hall. There was good turn-out. Sales of my CD after the concert generated money for Tohoku University.

In 2010, I received a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Project Award for Music Composition. That grant allowed me to produce a free concert of my compositions for two pianos at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, in March 2011 in Anchorage, Alaska ( Click here for this concert's poster) and to produce a CD of my compositions for two pianos. That CD is available for sale locally around Fairbanks and on Amazon.com.

In 2010, I performed my original modern piano compositions for two pianos at two concerts in Japan: Tohoku University in Sendai and at Hokkaido University in Sapporo. (series poster here!) I also performed my compositions for two pianos at the Davis Concert Hall (UAF). Here's a link to the Fairbanks News Miner article on the concert.