Kozue Matsumoto

Born and raised in the Tohoku (東北) area in Japan and having lived in Tokyo as well, Kozue is now based in the Los Angeles area. She has played the koto since she was three years old under Ikuta-ryu (生田流) Miyagi-kai　(宮城会) and holds a semi-master title (準師範). She has also played the shamisen and the shinobue since she was small.

In North America, she has been collaborating with various musicians and movement, visual, installation, and other artists. Not only does she play traditional, contemporary, and experimental music, but she also improvises, composes, and creates mixed media arts.

Together with her creative works and inter-disciplinary collaborations with various artists, she has a strong interest in exploring the possibilities of bringing Japanese traditional sounds and performing arts beyond their conventional contexts. She has performed as a soloist at Genshin Impact Symphony Concert at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles as well as in Chicago in 2023 and 2024. She has also contributed her koto sounds to Shogun (TV series released in 2024 from Disney on Hulu), Ghost of Tsushima (a PlayStation game released in 2020 from Sony), and other video games/TV series.

While being a Japanese music ensemble instructor at the California Institute of the Arts, she has been invited as a guest lecturer by schools in the USA and Japan and also travels throughout the USA for lectures, master classes, and workshops. Such schools and institutions include but not limited to the Consulate General of Japan, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, Washington State University, Keio University (Japan), MiraCosta College, Bakersfield College, Skidmore College, and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

She has performed at various projects and performances including MicroFest (Los Angeles CA), Lucas Artists Residency at Montalvo Arts Center (Saratoga, CA), Center for World Music (San Diego, CA), Desert X (Coachella Valley, CA), SASSAS (Los Angeles, CA), Improvisation Summit of Portland (Portland, OR), Time-Based Art Festival (Portland, OR), Washington Street Art Center (Boston, MA), The Fuse Factory Electronic and Digital Arts Lab (Columbus, OH), Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (Vancouver, Canada), and Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble (Vancouver, Canada).

She studied improvisation, composition, and music technology with Susan Allen, Vinny Golia, Eyvind Kang, and Ajay Kapur, and graduated with the Performer-Composer MFA from California Institute of the Arts.

東北出身。その後東京、バンクーバーで活動し現在はカリフォルニア州ロサンゼルスを拠点に活動。三歳より生田流宮城会で箏を習い始め、準師範の免状を持つ。箏の他にも三味線、篠笛も幼少より習う。

現在は音楽、また舞台芸術のジャンルの垣根を越えたコラボレーションを中心に活動を行っており、箏の伝統的な奏法にとらわれない、新たな箏の可能性を探っている。特に最近は箏の作り出す様々な音、ノイズとコンピューターテクノロジーを使用した新たな音の世界の創作に力を入れている。

主に北米を中心に活動しており、北米各地で演奏活動、作品の発表を行っている。一例：ソリスト for Genshin Shymphony Concert (Peacock Theater, ロサンゼルス、CA), Angel Jazz City Festival (ロサンゼルス、CA), MicroFest (ロサンゼルス、CA), Lucas Artists Residency at Montalvo Arts Center (サラトガ、CA), Desert X (コーチェラバレー, CA), SASSAS (ロサンゼルス、CA), Improvisation Summit of Portland (ポートランド、OR), Time-Based Art Festival (ポートランド、OR), Washington Street Art Center (ボストン、MA), The Fuse Factory Electronic and Digital Arts Lab (コロンバス、 OH), Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (バンクーバー、カナダ), Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble (バンクーバー、カナダ).

また、カリフォルニア芸術大学で教える傍ら、ゲストアーティストとして、日本国総領事館、UCLA、UC Santa Cruz、Washington State University、MiraCosta College、Bakersfield College、Skidmore College、the American Association of State Colleges and Universities、慶応大学等、日米両国の大学、機関にも招かれている。

カリフォルニア芸術大学 (California Institute of the Arts) 演奏・作曲科美術修士過程卒業。