WHAT'S NEW - in SEPTEMBER 2002!

He was on his way back to college in Japan when he boarded the ill-fated Flight 93.

Before being killed during the 9/11 tragedy, Toshiya Kuge was a 20-year-old Waseda University sophomore student from Tokyo, Japan. He was studying science and engineering at Waseda .

He grew up in Toyonaka City and graduated in 1999 from Kitano High School. Kuge grew up in Toyonaka City, and graduated in 1999 from Kitano High School, where he was a well-regarded student and goalkeeper on the soccer team.

He also played linebacker in American-style football and was a big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, Toshiya had his Pittsburgh Steelers jersey with him on the flight and died 80 miles from where the Steelers play their games.”

Toshiya Kuge "wanted to be friends with people" and to study in America, he wrote in an essay for a class he took earlier in 2001 at the University of Utah.

NEPTUNES

They (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo - 2002 ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award winner) are one of today's most successful hip-hop production team over the past five years. Since they were discovered by Teddy Riley in high school, their punctuating beats and syncopated rhythms fueling a unique sonic aesthetic have been heard from artists such as Jay-Z, Mystikal, Backstreet Boys, Brittany Spears, Noreaga, Kelis, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Janet Jackson, Mary J Blige, Babyface, Usher and No Doubt.

Their influences ranges far and wide from artists such as Stevie Wonder to Steely Dan, Donny Hathaway to America

The Neptunes have released a new “In Search Of…” c.d. under the name of N*E*R*D (Pharrell and Chad with school friend - Shay Haley) that mixes hard hip-hop beats to black psychedelic pop to classic rock to new wave that will bring a new beguiling sound to the pop landscape.

SEIJI OZAWA

This conductor/music director was born in 1935 in Shenyang, China. He studied at the Tokyo's Toho School of Music.

In 1959 he won first prize at the International Competition of Orchestra Conductors held in Besançon, France and won the Koussevitzky Prize for outstanding student conductor in 1960.

Leonard Bernstein appointed him assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1961-62 season. His career afterwards consists of being with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Ravinia Festival (1964), Toronto Symphony (1965 to 1969), San Francisco Symphony (1970 to 1976). He became an artistic director of Tanglewood in 1970 and began his tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1973. He had the longest tenure of any music director currently active with a major orchestra.

In the fall of 2002, Ozawa will assume the post of music director of the Vienna State Opera.

Ozawa has recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Paris, the Philharmonia of London, the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony, among others.

His awards including being named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by French President Jacques Chirac, recognizing not only his work as a conductor, "Musician of the Year" by Musical America and the first recipient of Japan's Inouye Sho (the "Inouye Award," named after this century's preeminent Japanese novelist) recognizing lifetime achievement in the arts.

In 1992 Ozawa co-founded the renowned Saito Kinen Festival.

Ozawa received Emmys for BSO’s PBS television series Evening at Symphony in 1976 and for Individual Achievement in Cultural Programming, for Dvorák in Prague: A Celebration, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1994.

AMERIE

This stunning product of a military family and a bi-racial family (her mother is from Korea and her dad is an African-American from North Philly was influenced by her mother’s artistic passions.

Her creative background was composed by her mom’s talents as painter, singer and classical pianist that was supplemented by her father’s old soul collection - along with a great appreciation and acknowledgement that “He” (and her parents’ prayers) was in control.

Though she graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in English and Fine Arts, her passion for music bought her to the attention of DC native Rich Harrison, whose production skills had already caught the ears of noted industry heavyweights Jeff Burroughs and Darryl Williams of Rise Entertainment and Edwin Holmes of EHM.

Their demo resulted in a record deal with Columbia Records resulting in the album entitled “All I Have,” along with collaborations with labelmates Nas and Royce da 5' 9". Her first single was the song entitled “Why Don’t We Fall in Love?”

JIN THA MC

Check out Jin’s (aka Jin Auyeung) music where he won the Azn freestyler who won 7 weeks in a row on BET's freestyle friday. The rapper has signed with Ruff Ryders record label. One of the things that helped him win the freestyle battle was his slanted eyes...when you have someone who can freestyle as good or better as most common American rappers, yet is not white or black, it has such a greater appeal. A Chinese American respected freestyle battle veteran was featured recently on BET's 106 & Park for 7 straight weeks and was included in their "Hall of Fame." He is now signed with Rough Riders. He was also recently on HOT 97

AUSTIN POWER’S TWINS!

Carrie Ann Inaba and Diane Mizota are featured in “Austin Powers in Goldmember” (the third Austin Powers film).

In the movie, they are the “Fook Twins.” Inaba (who was also in “Austin Powers II: The Spy Who Shagged Me” as one of the Felicity Dancers) plays Fook Yu and Mizota plays Fook Mi. They are the ultimate Austin Powers fans will go anywhere to see him while dressed in outrageous attire.

Carrie Inaba was one of the main dancers in Madonna's Girlie Show World Tour and danced alongside Ricky Martin in his 1999 World Tour.

For three years, she was a Fly Girl on In Living Color. Soon she will be helping to choreograph routines for the Miss America Pageant and on a tv show entitled “World Super Models.

Diane Mizota’s background was in local studios such as the Performing Arts Center in Van Nuys and The Edge. This Danville native has been seen in Friends, Nikki, Suddenly Susan, Boogie Nights, Lord of Illusions and Batman & Robin. She has also accompanied Prince, Garth Brooks, and Smashmouth in their music videos - in addition to Gap and Dr. Pepper commercials.

In 2002, she is the host of “Filter on G4tv” - a half-hour television show dedicated to providing entertainment, news and information about video, computer, online, and wireless games. Her other hosting credits include The Back Row, PAX-TV’s Forbidden Secrets, Microbe Man and GM Onstar. Her TV credits include King of Queens, Passions, MTV’s Undressed, Get Real, Ally McBeal, ABC’s Cinderella, The Drew Carey Show and Fame LA. Her additional movie credits include Miramax’s A View from the Top and Imposter. She has also wrote, produced and starred in a sitcom presentation to HBO/Warner Bros. TV Workspace on the lives and experiences of three dancers -- Mizota and two of her friends.

JON JANG

Jon Jang was born on March 11, 1954 in Los Angeles. After the tragic loss of his father in a plane accident in the Grand Canyon in 1956, Jon and his brother and sister were raised single-handedly by his mother in Palo Alto. Jon dropped out of academia (over his mom’s wish to be a chemical engineer) and began piano lessons at the late age of 19.

Jang was accepted at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and awarded the Lydia Lord Davis scholarship. He studied piano with Wilbur Price and composition with Wendell Logan while receiving a B.Mus degree in piano performance in 1978.

Jang has created music that he has called "two flowers on a stem" - a metaphor expressing the symbiotic relationship of his cultural identity as a Chinese American as well as his musical philosophy of honoring tradition and encouraging innovation. "My music does not come from the third stream, but the flowing stream."

Jang has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Library of Congress, Kronos Quartet, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Chanticleer, Brava! for Women in the Arts, Kulintang Arts, Cal Performances - University of California at Berkeley and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis’ "When Sorrow Turns to Joy - Songlines: The Spiritual Tributary of Paul Robeson and Mei Lanfang."

He composed the score to dramatic adaptation of Maxine Hong Kingston’s "The Woman Warrior."

Jon Jang’s ensembles have toured at major concert halls and music festivals in China, South Africa (1994), Europe, Canada and the United States. Jang has recorded with distinguished artists such as Max Roach, Maxine Hong Kingston, James Newton, David Murray, Zhang Yan and Jiebing Chen.


	nbsp;