devon is in no particular order: a queer nonbinary Pittsburgh based NY born shakuhachi player, composer, improviser, cat lover, failed orchestral bassoonist, partner to Kanoko, amateur cook, and self taught visual artist. My music draws influence from my Japanese roots, experiences as a jeweller and painter, improvisations with plants, and studies of gagaku and hogaku. My music focuses on rhythmic and timbral transmutation of cyclical materials as a way of reflecting on my past. My compositions have been performed in the US, Europe, Australia, China, and Japan. I have presented my research on global art music at conferences and universities in the US, Europe, and Japan. My research on contemporary Japanese music has been published in the Czech peer reviewed journal Ziva Hubda, and my flute works are published by Tetractys Publishing in the UK.

My awards include the 2015-16 Listhus Ses Skammdegi AIR Award (Iceland), and rarescale’s 10th Anniversary Composition Competition (UK 2013). I have received commissions from ensembles such as Kamraton (Pittsburgh, PA), the Thin Edge New Music Collective (Toronto Canada), and the Oh My Ears! Festival (Phoenix, AZ). They have been an artist in residence at Leveld Kunstnartun (Ål, Norway), Listhús AiR (Olafsfjördur, Iceland), and La Pantographe (Moutier, Switzerland). I have performed at festivals such as the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, 24 Hour Drone at the Hudson Basilica, the International Shakuhachi Festival Prague, and the Oh My Ears! Festival in Phoenix Arizona.

Notable collaborations include work with Nicole Mitchell, Tatsu Aoki, Kjell Tore Innervik, Daniel Paulsen, Veli Kujala, Susanne Kujala, rarescale’s Carla Rees, Gavin Stewart, Tolgahan Cogulu, Hitomi Nakamura, gamin, Kate Halsall, Gleb Kanasevich, Chatori Shimizu, String Noise, Victoria Cheah, TAK Ensemble, Sabine Kaselow, Alison Lowell, Thin Edge New Music Collective, the Sudbury Guitar Trio, MikroEnsemble, Jay Rauch, Kamraton, David Bernabo, members of Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Paul Miller, David Bernabo, Brian Riordan, Lu-han Li, Jason Belcher, Mark Micchelli, Mai Khôi, Qixin Zhang andJudy Shintani. I have also collaborated with Astrophysicist Carles Badenes and Particle Physicist Sergey Frolov as an artist in Residence hosted by the Astrology and Cosmology Department at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

I received my Bachelor’s in Music from Montclair State University in bassoon performance and composition, and my M.A., and Ph.D. in music composition and theory at the University of Pittsburgh. I studied composition with Mathew Rosenblum, Marcos Balter, Eric Moe, Amy Williams, Elizabeth Brown, and Dean Drummond. I am a shakuhachi student of Tokumaru Jumei ????, and previously studied with Ralph Samuelson and Elizabeth Brown.