We had the good fortune of connecting with Brian Wong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brian, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Being a practitioner of a traditional art form that is foreign to most people in the United States, there is a lot of a feeling of wanting to blend in with the perception of the dominant culture. I grew up with a mother and grandmother, who were master musicians, performers, and teachers of Japanese music but there wasn’t always people around me that were interested in koto, shakuhachi, or shamisen. I was interested in other things as well, but my mother always would be performing in local festivals, writing music, teaching, or playing with her jazz band the Murasaki Ensemble. After a while, I realized as I gained experience and put more effort into practicing, writing music, arranging, and performing with other groups, that it was important for me to accept my own role and responsibility towards the music and people who would listen, learn about, and enjoy the music. There is so much a creative element instilled into me by a lot of my teachers and music community that encourages and appreciates being innovative, reaching out, trying new things, and being a self-starter. After a while, no one can push you to do things. You have to make choices to make time and build yourself up, a little at a time.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I feel like some of my life things have come easy to me. Learning music and tonality was easy for me at a young age, there is a recording somewhere of me singing a tune with my mom at 2 years old! I had difficulties with rhythm, especially when I didn’t take the time to practice and learn. When I studied to get my Bachelor of Arts or to get my Teaching Degree from the Sawai Conservatory in Tokyo, I really had to work hard at learning the music, getting better at interpretation, and dynamics and understanding emotional and spiritual content, to get the results I wanted. I rarely am satisfied with myself if I didn’t give my best effort to the work I am trying to achieve. I think sometimes people think that it is easy being an artist or that artists are aloof or not serious at pursuing their goals or dreams. It is important to push hard towards what you really want to do in life and what you feel is your responsibility as a person.

It’s also good to step back from the constant flow of all the ideas and wanting to do everything because it’s important to recharge and to experience different things in life. I love music and art but I want to have all sorts of experiences in a variety of places and with various people.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There are a lot of interesting places to eat, walk around, sight see around the bay area. It’s good to ask around or just go to different places. In the Bay Area, there is great Chinese, Southern, Vietnamese, Japanese, Mexican, Ethiopian, Italian, and Indian Food just to name a few types of cuisines I like to enjoy. I have favorite spots but I am always looking for new places to try. I love variety! Telegraph Avenue, Piedmont Avenue, the Glenview where I grew up, San Francisco. There are so many great museums and parks, hiking trails, Lake Merritt, Joaquin Miller Park. I love the bay area and just picking somewhere to go and wander around.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I think the first shoutout has to go to my parents for raising me, giving me the gift of music and supporting me in my music endeavors. They paid for me to go to Japan and study with some of the great koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi musicians. I learned from the Kyushu School of Chikushi Katsuko, the only school with a Iemoto (pronounced ee-eh-mo-to, meaning headmaster) that is female. She composed the music for the school and got my grandmother into koto music in her teens. Also, the Sawaii Sokyokuin in Tokyo. The great Kazue Sawaii invited me to go and study there and be a live-in student (uchideshi) and learn koto, helping out with concerts, and taking care of the school grounds. She was a great mentor and her son is the current headmaster of the school.

The Oaktown Jazz Workshops, led by Khalil Shaheed and Ravi Abcarian were instrumental in teaching me jazz, and learning how to improvise. I was learning saxophone at the time, around high school and college. Also, Dave Eshelman and Dann Zinn at Cal State Hayward, where I studied Jazz, Band Music, and Composition.

The rest I just thank my friends, family, and the places I grew up, namely the bay area and Oakland!

Website: https://bmwkoto.com

Instagram: bw2332

Youtube: @bandgeek928

Image Credits
Robert C Wong. Sean Oshima. Brad Shirakawa.

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.