Minakumari, a sitar player and singer-songwriter (http://minakumari.net)
Born in Okayama, Japan, she debuted as a guitarist who played an
active role in most of the lyrics and songs of the girls’ band
Catch-up, which released three historic albums. She graduated from the
Indian Languages department of the Asia-Africa Linguistic Institute of
Tokyo, the India Diplus Tea College, and studied psychology at Christ
College in Bangalore, India. She started to learn the sitar in 2003
under the distinctive sitar player Moniral Nag in Kolkata, India. She
participated in various lives and recordings by such major Japanese
artists as Chara, Akino Arai, Rip Slym and Gonzales Mikami (Gontiti).
Also, she costarred with Hanaregumi, mabanua and Hirotaka “Shimmy”
Shimizu in various improvisational forms. She successfully released
her first solo album “Rasa” in 2008 and second album “Rang” in July
2012. Her third album is slated to be released this spring 2015. She
gave consecutive performances in France in April 2009.
Blending her sweet voice in Japanese, Hindi and English into the
fantastical sitar world, her songs are like new, but nostalgic fairy
tales woven by Indian traditional instruments.
