Tomoko Sugawara | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Tokyo, Japan |
| Genres | World music; Classical music |
| Occupation | musician |
| Instrument(s) | kugo concert harp |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Labels | Motéma Music |
| Website | kugoharp |
Tomoko Sugawara is a harpist from Tokyo, Japan, who grew up playing classical and Irish harp before learning to play the kugo or angular harp. With Swedish professor Bo Lawergren, whom she met at a kugo museum exhibit in Nara, Japan, she engineered a fully working model of a kugo and hired American harp builder Bill Campbell to construct it. After adjusting to the soft sound of the model, she recorded a CD on Motéma Music called Along the Silk Road, released in 2010, which was a nominee for the Independent Music Awards in the Traditional/World category.[1] She worked with flutist Robert Dick and bendir and darabukka player Ozan Aksöy for pieces composed by Kikuko Masumoto, Stephen Dydo (based on music from the Tang dynasty), Quţh al-Din al-Shīrāzī (1236–1311, Iran), Robert Lombardo, Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour, and Sugawara's own arrangements of works by Alfonso X.