Yoko Suzuki, piano
Yoko Suzuki is a jazz pianist and composer/arranger from Yokohama, Japan. She studied under the mentorship of Makoto Ozone and Satoru Shionoya in the Jazz Music Course of the Department of Performance and Composition at the Kunitachi College of Music. At the annual Tokyo Jazz Festival in 2015 and 2016, two of her original pieces were performed by the JFC All Star Big Band, led by Makoto Ozone. Following her graduation from Kunitachi College of Music, she enrolled in Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA) with a scholarship, where she majored in Jazz Composition and Performance and studied with Greg Hopkins, Ayn Inserto, Bob Pilkington, and Tim Ray. After being awarded multiple recognitions and scholarships from the school each year, she graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music in 2020. During her time as a student, she received several young composer awards, including the 43rd Annual DownBeat Student Music Award from the prestigious DownBeat Magazine and the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award from ASCAP. Suzuki returned to Japan in 2020, where she has since been performing in the Tokyo area while continuing to compose a wide range of works from chamber music to big band. She composed a work on commission from the Island Torch Festival in Taiwan and performed in its premiere. In 2021, one of her original arrangements was featured as part of No Name Horses’ Tribute to Chick Corea led by Makoto Ozone. This is her first appearance at PMF. 
　
Shutaro Matsui, trumpet
Shutaro Matsui was born in Kunitachi, Tokyo in 1999. He graduated at the top of the Jazz Music Course in the Department of Performance and Composition at Kunitachi College of Music after graduating from its high school. He is a winner of the Yatabe Award. Matsui won a number of classical music competitions while still in high school and performed a concerto with the school orchestra. He also performed as a trumpeter of the Japan Mozart Junior Orchestra. After entering college, he joined the Newtide Jazz Orchestra and began his career as a professional musician. He has toured Japan with HYDE, the BLUE NOTE TOKYO ALL-STAR JAZZ ORCHESTRA, Tokyo Collection Show Music, and more. Currently, while focusing on his own band and performing jazz concerts, he is also active in various genres, including artist-backup performance and recordings for TV dramas and commercials. His trumpet teachers include Shun Sasaki, Hiroshi Kamijou, André Henry, Sho Okumura, and Eric Miyashiro. This is his first appearance at PMF.

Kurena Ishikawa, bass
Kurena Ishikawa was born in Saitama and graduated from the Jazz Music Course in the Department of Performance and Composition at the Kunitachi College of Music. She studied jazz bass with Yosuke Inoue and Ken Kaneko. Her vocal teacher is Miho Takashima. She actively performs both as a bassist and as a bassist-vocalist. Ishikawa performed with Makoto Ozone as a member of the “From OZONE till Dawn” project, launched by Ozone and actor Misuzu Kanno in 2021. Ishikawa released her first single, "hitori / chiisaku sayonara wo" as part of the duo "soraya" with pianist Kento Tsubosaka in April 2022. This is her first appearance at PMF.
　
　
＜From OZONE Till DAWN＞
http://www.bluenote.co.jp/jp/lp/makoto-ozone-2021/