Improvisations on EO9066

Chicago Philharmonic
Kaoru Ishibashi (Kishi Bashi) Violin, Vocals, Composer
Scott Speck Conductor
Marcus Norris Donna Milanovich Composer in Residence

Buy tickets to Kishi Bashi’s Improvisations on EO9066 on April 15, 2023

In this powerful concert, award-winning multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Kishi Bashi explores Executive Order 9066, which saw the incarceration of thousands of innocent Japanese Americans during the Second World War. This immersive, multimedia experience with Kishi Bashi and the full Chicago Philharmonic features photography by Dorothea Lange and the filmmaking expertise of Director JJ Gerber.

Critics have hailed Kishi Bashi’s work as “an uplifting documentary about a musician, but also about sympathy, compassion, and basic humanity” (Screen Zealots) and “a celebration of the diversity of America” (AU Review).

Plus, Donna Milanovich Composer in Residence Marcus Norris shares a World Premiere with Chicago Philharmonic.

About Kishi Bashi

Kishi Bashi is the pseudonym of singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Kaoru Ishibashi. Born in Seattle, Washington, Ishibashi grew up in Norfolk, Virginia where both of his parents were professors at Old Dominion University. As a 1994 graduate of Matthew Fontaine Maury High School, he went on to study film scoring at Berklee College of Music before becoming a renowned violinist. Ishibashi has recorded and toured internationally as a violinist with diverse artists such as Regina Spektor, Sondre Lerche, and most recently, the Athens, Georgia-based indie rock band, of Montreal. He remains based in Athens.

Kishi Bashi is also the singer and founding member of the New York electronic rock outfit, Jupiter One. In 2011, he started to record and perform as a solo artist, opening for Sondre Lerche, Alexi Murdoch, and of Montreal. He supported of Montreal on their spring 2012 tour.

Following on from “Sonderlust”, he released his album “Omoiyari” (a Japanese word for the idea of creating compassion toward other people by thinking about them) in 2019, in support of his feature length documentary “Omoiyari: A songfilm by Kishi Bashi” which explores minority identity and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans in WWII. After 4 years in the making and over $100,000 donated by backers across the globe, the film officially premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March 2022.

In 2020 Kishi Bashi scored the entire soundtrack for the touching Apple TV kids show “Stillwater” with composer Toby Chu, and released it as an album featuring 18 tracks of uplifting orchestral tunes.

His Emigrant EP, released in 2021, is a very special companion piece to ‘Omoiyari’ and serves as a time capsule of the 2020 condition and a continuation of the concepts explored in ‘Omoiyari’.

In 2022 he announced the re-issue of his debut album 151a in honor of the 10 year anniversary of its original release, as his first double LP which includes original demo’s of all the album tracks. “151a (Demo-arigato Version)” is available now on all streaming platforms.