Emi Meyer
Emi Meyer
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Emi Meyer

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Emi Meyer

Emi Meyer (born March 1987) is a Japanese-born American jazz pianist and singer-songwriter who is based in Seattle and Tokyo and active in both the Japanese and American markets.

Meyer was born in Kyoto, Japan, but grew up in Seattle, Washington, United States. Her mother is Japanese and a professor of art history while her father is American. Meyer began learning classical piano at age six but expanded to Jazz. Meyer attended University Prep, a school in Seattle.

Meyer studied ethnomusicology and international relations at Pomona College in Los Angeles County, including Indian ragas, African drumming and Japanese gagaku (classical court music). She wrote her thesis on the division in the modern Japanese music scene between hogaku (Japanese music) and yogaku (Western music).

She first lived in Japan when she took a study-abroad program in the city of her birth, Kyoto. In 2007, Meyer won the Seattle-Kobe Jazz Vocalist Competition, which kick started her career in Japan.

Meyer's 2007 self-produced debut album, Curious Creature reached the No. 1 spot on the iTunes Japan jazz chart after the single "Room Blue" was selected as the Single of the Week. She was already actively performing at events such as the Seattle's Northwest Folklife Festival, the Sundance Film Festival and Kobe Jazz Festival.

Living in Los Angeles, Emi has performed around Hollywood, including The Hotel Café. In Seattle, she has performed at The Pink Door, Dimitrio's Jazz Alley and Volunteer Park Amphitheater and in New York at the Rockwood Music Hall as well as the 92YTribeca with The Shanghai Restoration Project.

In 2009, Meyer performed as the opening act for Yael Naim's tour in Tokyo and also played at the Fuji Rock Festival.

For her second album Passport, written entirely in Japanese, Meyer teamed up with Japanese rapper and producer Shingo Annen (better known by his stage name Shing02). The record has influences from Brazil, where overdubs were recorded and incorporates bossa nova and reggae.

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