AVANT GUARDIANS By Leticia Gonzales
From the heart Masa Ishikawa makes emotional connection through music
M
asa Ishikawa’s connection with music stems from his upbringing in Japan. “My mother would play a little tiny cassette tape with folk songs,” he said. “She would play that music when I was sleeping, when I was in the room, all day long.” Although Ishikawa participated in choirs from elementary school into high school in Japan, he didn’t learn to play the piano until he was an adult. “I did not really play piano until I came to the United States when I was 23.” Although he initially moved
to Washington state in 2003 for choir, Ishikawa said he developed his love for jazz and piano along the way. “It was really Stevie Wonder that I was so interested in knowing more about, not just about his music.” He also gravitated toward the music of Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, among other American soul artists. He began playing the piano as part of his musical curriculum, which included a keyboard course. He taught himself to read music despite never taking lessons. He
has been teaching music theory and jazz at Gustavus Adolphus College since his arrival to the state in 2016 as a visiting assistant professor in music. It was the relationships between jazz and the sound and harmony that he heard in Stevie Wonder’s music that brought on his passion. “It’s like a circle of a connection. I kind of made a shift to start learning piano and jazz.” He continued his education in Seattle, followed by Colorado, Florida and Nebraska, before calling Minnesota home in 2016. He lived in Iowa from 2019 to 2020
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