About Me
Kiho Yutaka is a New York based Violinist/Composer originally from Japan. As a recipient of the North American Tour Scholarship for her violin entry audition, she graduated from Berklee College of Music with a bachelor's degree in Contemporary Writing and Production.
During her college days, her exceptional performances and talent got her professional recording experiences with renowned artists such as Will Makar (American Idol Finalist) and Ayumi Ueda (founder of Women of the World). Kiho was also a member of Boston String Players, which are collectives of string players and composers that perform contemporary classical pieces at venues in the greater Boston area. The most notable performance was held at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where she was featured as a solo violinist on her own arrangement of Armando's Rhumba.
After moving to New York, she became full time professional violinist and composer/arranger. Her work include string arrangements on tracks for Jerry Barnes (Bass player for Chic of Nile Rodgers/Latin Grammy Winning Producer), Thomas Hutchings (Grammy nominated saxophonist) and Ben Lorentzen (Singer-Songwriter for EMI publishings/S2/Universal). In addition, some of these artists even contracted her as a session violinist to record her composition live performances. She has also landed several Broadway copyists jobs for Bill Elliott (Tony Award Winning Orchestrator) and the 24 Hour Musical.
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Kiho's violinist live performance debut in NY was at the off-Broadway theater, The Gallery Players in October 2012. Since then, she has had multiple credits on various musical theater productions, including Christmas Carol, Singing in the Rain and How to Succeed in Business Without Trying. Other notable performance credits include Streetlight Manifesto (New Jersey born ska/punk band) at PlayStation Theater, Beacon Theater and Radio City Music Hall. She was a violin chair for The NYChillHarmonic & Sara McDonald, in which she performed at tri-state area venues like John F. Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center.
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Kiho was also one of the violinists who performed with the critically acclaimed Voyeur by the Bated Breath Theater Company, an open air, immersive theatrical experience that ran from October 2020 through February 2021. She was even performed on a live segment of the play on CBS Evening News, which aired on October 15, 2020.
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Currently, Kiho is the violinist of John The Martyr. She has performed with the band at multiple venues and radio shows suh as the SXSW Conference and Festival 2019, Paste Magazine, Tipitina's, City Winery and Crawfish Festival. She has contributed as a violinist and arranger for the band's first full album, which was released in June 2019. One of the tracks, "Time," has an extended featured improvised solo of hers, and its single release was premiered on the Billboard Magazine along with a specific mention of her name of the article.
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She has joined in on the East Coast tour of il Volo (Eurovision Song Contest 2015 3rd place) Sarah Brightman and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Her most recent appearance is with Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Good Morning America.
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Kiho is also a violinist/arranger/composer of the math-core metal band, Juan Bond. Their first live-recorded video has hit above 25,000 views on YouTube at the release and continues to be shared in the math-core metal community. Having a solo violinist in a metal band is a very innovative orchestration, which shows her extraordinary ability push the boundaries of what violins can do. The most recent full-length album, 'Womb' was released on January 1, 2021 through Dark Trai. Records. The album has been featured on multiple publications in the USA and Europe such as Metal Injection, Heavy Blog is Heavy and Everything is Noise. The single 'Bat' from the album was played on BBC Radio 1 Rock Show with Daniel Carter on January 3, 2021.
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Furthermore, Kiho contributes and performs for iTSO (iconiQ The Soundtrack Orchestra) Youtube channel. There she performed as a violinist on three videos with over 1 million views each.
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As a bilingual Japanese professional musician working in the USA, Kiho believes it is also her duty to be the bridge between the countries and facilitate exchange of culture and knowledge through her music career. For iTSO, she helped to bring Lotus Juice (Japanese rapper, Persona 4, Jojo's Bizzare Adventure) and Taku Iwasaki (film/anime composer, Jojo, City Hunter, Soul Eater) to NY and host a "SOULJAM" concert on November 18 2016, at the Littlefield venue. Kiho provided translations to aid logistics, panel discussions, and contract agreement. She was also featured as the solo violinist on one of their songs, backed by a 10-piece ensemble.
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In addition, Kiho helped Japanese artist, Daichi Beatboxer create youtube videos of his stay in New York, showed his 1 million subscribers to help expose American musical culture to his Japanese viewers. She connected him with other local musicians and helped him navigate filming in public places in New York. In two of the videos she performed covers of Rather Be By Clean Bandit and Fur Elise along with Daichi.
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Kiho's also acted as a contractor/violinist in charge of all music performances at Fukushima Night in NY, held at One World Observatory on May 30, 2018. The Governor of Fukushima Prefecture sought to dispel the myth of Fukushima products being dangerously toxic due to the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Nuclear Power Plant disaster. Therefore, he hosted this event and invited local Fukushima industries to promote their safe and high-quality products. Kiho gathered and directed local NY musicians to perform throughout the vent. This was an emotional night for over 200 attendees, as One World Trade Center symbolizes hope and optimism for the future, which both Americans and Japanese shared on this night.
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Kiho is an innovative and exceptional violinist/composer, bringing people and culture together for the music industry and beyond.