Concert Hall ATM

Makoto Ozone

Piano
Brought up in a musical rich environment, Makoto Ozone taught himself organ at a very young age. He first appeared on TV at the age of six and performed regularly on Osaka Mainichi Broadcasting. Ozone turned his attention towards jazz piano at the age of twelve, after attending an Oscar Peterson concert. He moved to the United States in 1980 to study jazz composition and arranging at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1983, Ozone graduated at the top of his class and gave a solo recital at the Carnegie Hall. He became the first Japanese musician to sign an exclusive contract with CBS.
In 1983 he joined vibraphonist Gary Burton's quartet and has since toured the world extensively with them. In addition to composing for and playing with Gary Burton, Ozone has also worked with many other top international jazz musicians including Chick Corea, Ellis Marsalis and Branford Marsalis.
In 2004, he formed the "No Name Horses" big band in Japan. The band has been performing successfully in France, Austria, the US, the UK, Singapore and Japan ever since.
In recent years, Ozone has been performing works from the classical music repertoire. Under internationally known conductors such as Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, Thomas Zehetmair, Joseph Swensen, Alexandre Rabinovitch, Arie van Beek, Francois-Xavier Roth, Tadaaki Otaka, Eiji Oue and Michiyoshi Inoue, he has played concertos by Gershwin, Bernstein, Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich, in collaboration with the NDR Sinfonieorchester, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris (former Ensemble orchestral de Paris), the Orchestre d'Auvergne, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the NHK Symphony Orchestra , etc.

In 2003, on a commission from the famous playwright Hisashi Inoue, Ozone performed and conducted his own composition, a piano concerto titled “Mogami.” In 2006, he was invited to the “Chopin and His Europe” International Festival in Warsaw. In 2008, Ozone performed with the NDR Sinfonieorchester at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival. In 2010, Ozone released “Road to Chopin,” an album dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth. His 2012 highlight is a trio tour in Japan with the prestigious jazz masters Christian McBride and Jeff "Tain" Watts. In 2013, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of his world debut, he toured with Gary Burton in Japan for a month.
In addition to his performing career, Ozone hosts a popular jazz music radio program and writes music for live theater and TV.
In 2014, he toured Asia with the New-York Philharmonic under the baton of Alain Gilbert (Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, New York/Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue).
The same year, Makoto made a jazz arrangement of Mozart’s piano concerto No. 9 “Jeunehomme” for the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, performing the work’s world premiere together in UK. He performed with NDR Radiophilharmonie in their May 2014 Subscription Concert and in July, he gave special concerts with the San-Francisco Symphony Orchestra (“Bernstein and Gershwin”, etc). In September, Makoto toured Japan with his big band No Name Horses, and together, they released their latest CD, celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the band. Furthermore, he was invited to play with the Sao-Paulo Symphony Orchestra to play as soloist in their October Subscription Concert.

Makoto is active all over the world, performing in such cities as Vienna, New York, Sao Paolo, etc., together with such famous jazz musicians as Gary Burton, Chick Corea ,Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Branford Marsalis, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Christian McBride, Dave Weckl, Mike Stern and others.
He is a regular guest of classical music festivals such as the Festival de la Roque d'Anthéron in France and La Folle Journee in Nantes and Japan.
He has released many albums on Universal Music including the Grammy nominated "Virtuosi" (2002), a duet album with Gary Burton. Since his debut album”Ozone” (1984), he has released almost one album per year. His most recent recordings include “Live & Let Live - Love for Japan” (2010), is a charity project for 3.11 earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan ; “My Witch’s Blue” (2012), a Jazz trio album with Christian McBride and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts ;“Time Thread” (2013) is his third duo album with Garly Burton ; ‘Road/ Rhapsody in Blue’ (2014), is the 10th anniversary album of Ozone feat.No Name Horses, Jazz Band.
Ozone is currently a professor at the Kunitachi College of Music.