Marcus Tsutakawa

Born in Seattle, Marcus Tsutakawa began his teaching career as a Japanese language teacher but eventually became the orchestra director. He teaches at Garfield High School. Over the years he has worked very closely with the award winning Jazz Band Director Clarence Acox to create one of the best high school music programs in the world. The Garfield Symphony Orchestra won the "Best Orchestra" Award from the Down Beat Magazine in 2007.

In addition to his duties at Garfield, Tsutakawa is also involved with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, which have toured in Europe, Asia, and across the United States. In 1992, Tsutakawa received the Prix de Martell award from Martell Cognac, Int'l, recognizing him as one of the "Champions of Classical Music."

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Deems Tsutakawa

Deems Tsutakawa began playing piano at the age of 5 and won the annual Washington State Music Teachers Association Award at the age of 9. He originally played classical music but in high school turned his attention to jazz. His passion to perform and write continued to grow from his early days at nightclubs in Central Seattle and the International District to worldwide concert halls and clubs, from Tokyo, Japan to London, England.

He has established himself internationally as a distinctive and imaginative writer, arranger, producer, and bandleader. He is also well known for being an explosive solo pianist. With his roots planted firmly in an Asian American upbringing, his music has evolved into a delectable blend of R&B, pop, and mainstream jazz that he calls "contemporary soul jazz."

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Angelo Pizarro

Angelo Pizarro comes from a musical family. His older brother Wilfred and his father Gen inspired Pizarro from an early age. Born in the Philippines, he shares Filipino folk, jazz, and blues with the Seattle music scene.

Aside from guitar playing, Pizarro also writes and performs improvisational acoustic and electric guitar music, mixing the traditional sounds of his Filipino heritage with the electrified funk and rock of his youth.

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Warren Chang

Warren Chang and his wife, Buyun Zhao, have introduced the Chinese genre of music to the Seattle community over the last two decades. They founded the first organization dedicated to Chinese music in Washington state. Chang is the president and music director of the association.

Chang is one of China’s most prominent Er-hu artist, contributing his accomplished talent to audiences of the United States. In May of 1984, Chang and Zhao started the Chinese Arts and Music Association. Within the association, there are four different groups: Seattle Chinese Orchestra, Washington Chinese Youth Orchestra, U.S. China Music Ensemble and Northwest Chinese Gu-Zheng Orchestra. The purpose of the association was to introduce and teach Chinese music to the Western world.

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Buyun Zhao

Buyun Zhao was strongly influenced and encouraged by her parents to learn music. Zhao specializes in the yangqin but also plays the gu-zheng and pi-pa. In December of 1993, Zhao and her husband established the first Washington Chinese Youth Orchestra whose members range from 5 to 18 years old.

Zhao attended the Shanghai Opera Music School when she was nine. She became a music teacher after she graduated from college and then she joined the Shanghai Orchestra.

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Dieter Zong Shun Cui

Dieter Zong Shun Cui may reside in Seattle, but he is regularly traveling all over the world to perform and teach opera music.  In addition to being a top performer in Chinese and Western opera, Cui contributes to the community through his nonprofit organization, the Seattle PhiloVoce Association and the “I Do Ree Me” children’s choir. 

Cui moved to the U.S. in 1995 and Seattle in 1999 to further improve his voice training and expand his experience and skills. He studied voice in Europe under the direction of Tom Kraus. He alsocompleted his two-year training at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. 

Cui was a recently a featured performer at the National Performance Art Center in Beijing, China and a guest speaker at the “Master Class for Voice” event in April 2009. 

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Young Hee Kim

For 30 years, Korean Music Association, formerly named the Korean American Musicians Association of Washington, has been offering free concerts in Seattle, attracting over 1,000 audiences each year. One of its founding members, soprano Young Hee Kim is still singing and taking part in community events.

Kim was born in Anseong, South Korea. In high school, she learned to sing in Italian and German. Despite her struggle in memorizing lyrics and the pressure of squeezing singing practice into a hectic studying schedule, Kim went on to major in vocal music at Yonsei University in Seoul. Kim came to the U.S. in 1972 and cofounded the Korean Music Assocation in 1979.

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Kyung-ah Oh

Kyung-ah Oh is a soprano and the cofounder of the Korean Music Association. Born in Seoul, she has loved to sing since age 7 and has sung at church often. A vocal music major at Yonsei University, Oh taught music in a high school for five years before coming to the U.S. with her husband in 1969.

After her and her husband moved to Washington state, she went to University of Washington to study vocal music in graduate school. Oh has sung at different ceremonies and volunteered as a choir conductor at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Federal Way.

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Sharad Gadre

Now 70 years old, Sharad Gadre has countless musical experiences to share. He exchanges them with students during private lessons, and with the rest of the world on a self-developed software program called RagaParichaya.

RagaParichaya introduces 70 ragas, or scales. It is a product of Gadre’s expertise in computer technology and Indian classical music. Gadre has a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from England’s Imperial College and was a computer scientist at Boeing for 25 years.

He started his vocal classical music education with Pt. Yashewant Sadashiv Mirashibuwa and Pt. Nagesh Khalika, in Pune, India. This formal training lasted for six years, and laid a strong background of the Gwalior tradition in his music. When Gadre began this journey at 11 years old, he did not foresee that Indian classical music would become his lifetime passion and career, but amazingly, that is how it is working out.

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Thuy Mien Ngo

 Music has always been a way for Thuy Mien Ngo to express himself, and share his emotions with the ones he loves. Born in 1948 in Hai Fong, Vietnam, Ngo began writing music at the age of 15. Growing up in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Ngo chose a path for himself, and that was to write only love songs.  

Classically trained in violin during the 1960s at the National Conservatory of Music of Saigon, which allowed him to develop his musical style. In 1970 Ngo became head of musical group Luan Phien which played for the VietNam Army Radio in Saigon.

In 1981, Ngo earned a Bachelors degree in Computer Science , and began working for Washington state as a Computer Information Consultant. In the next year, Ngo released an album featuring songs written in the United States.

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Meet these Asian American Pioneers in Music. They are being honored at an awards gala presented by the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation.

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