Biography

Naomi Kumamoto

flutist and composer of choro

Flute(Open G#)：
Haynes (Prata) - No.8924 (USA、1927)
Louis Lot (Metal) - No.7176 (France、1902)

Alto Flute(Open G#)：
Sankyo (bocal de prata) - No.71690 (Japan)

Piccolo(Open G#)：
Franz. O. Adler (Germany、1910~20?) 

 Born in Kobe, Japan, Naomi Kumamoto graduated in Flute Performance from the Pedagogy University of Osaka. She worked for many years as a classical recording artist, soloist, and musician in symphonic orchestras.

One day she discovered choro and fell in love.

In 2000 at a roda de choro, or choro circle in Japan she met guitarist and composer Mauricio Carrilho, who was then touring Japan. He wrote her a choro calling it Naomi vai pro Rio, (Naomi goes to Rio) inviting her to visit Rio de Janeiro and learn choro. A few days later Naomi responded by composing her first choro: Me espere no Rio, (Wait for Me in Rio.) This was the beginning of a long story.

Naomi went to Rio de Janeiro for the first time in January 2001 and stayed for 3 months. She soon began work in a recording studio on the series Principios do Choro (Principles of Choro) beside Altamiro Carrilho, Toninho Carrasqueira, Nailor Proveta, Jorginho do Pandiero, Mauricio Carrilho, Luciana Rabello and others. She participated in concerts, choro circles, and attended classes at the choro workshop. At the end of her stay she began recording her own CD for the Acari Records label.

The next year she returned to Rio to finish recording her CD. She also played on the collection of CD’s entitled Joaquim Callado – Pai dos Chorões. She then returned to Japan and began spreading choro, playing in various cities with the Japanese violinist Shigeharu Sasago. Naomi created the first choro circle in Japan in Osaka, at the record store Chove Chuva which specialized in Brazilian music and organized a library of choro scores. This choro circle continues today and the store Chove Chuve has become the center of Japanese choro.

In 2003 Naomi left classical music to dedicate herself entirely to choro. Her first choro CD, Naomi vai pro Rio, with her own compositions, was released on the Acari Records label. Her CD release concerts in Japan took place in four cities (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Okayama) with Japanese musicians, and in Rio de Janeiro with Brazilian musicians who played on the recording.



In 2004 Naomi organized the Kobe Brazilian Music Festival in tribute to the 35th anniversary of the sister-cities Rio de Janeiro and Kobe. Brazilian musicians Mauricio Carrilho, Luciana Rabello, Pedro Amorim, and Celsinho Silva (the group 5 no Choro) participated in the festival as well as forty Japanese groups of different Brazilian musical styles and four professional choro groups. The first choro workshop in Japan took place at the festival and eighty people learned the language of choro with Brazilian musicians. The group 5 no Choro toured through five Japanese cities, and in September Naomi decided to move permanently to Rio de Janeiro and live solely off of choro.

The next year, thanks to the great success of the Kobe Festival, Naomi and the other Brazilian musicians that participated in the event were invited to return for a new tour in seven cities, including a workshop. The group recorded their first CD 5 no Choro and released it exclusively in Japan. The CD used music composed by the musicians themselves and composers from the group. Following this, the group participated in recording the CD series Choro Carioca: Música do Brasil, and released a book of choro scores in Japan called Coleções de choro para flauta e violão, with Mauricio Carrilho, and the guitarist and arranger Paulo Aragão through the Japanese editor Chuo Art Publishing Company. It was the first Japanese book of choro.

In 2006, recognized as a great interpreter and expert on Brazilian Music, Naomi was invited to give a concert and workshop at the Choro Club in Paris, France. This same year she also participated in one of the first events commemorating the centenary of the Japanese immigration to Brazil in the city of Santos, SP (where the first ship bringing Japanese immigrants landed) promoted by the Choro Club of Santos. In September she traveled to Germany with the group Caldereta Carioca, to perform the work O Boi no Telhado, by Darius Milhaud in a special arrangement for regional groups. The group presented the work on stages in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and a live recording is currently being produced. In December 2006 she returned once again to Japan for another tour and workshop, this time accompanied by the guitarist Paulo Aragão, passing through Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, Shiroishi, and Kamakura.

Naomi Kumamoto was responsible for the first presentation of Brazilian music in the Japanese Consulate of Rio de Janeiro, during the “Month of Japan,” in 2006. Her music, filled with both Japanese and Brazilian elements, was considered “an evolution of Japanese culture.”

In April of 2007, for the National Choro Day, she was acknowledged by the Chamber of Councilors of Rio de Janeiro for her services rendered to choro.

Starting in 2006 Naomi became the flute professor at the Escola Portatil de Musica, (Portable Music School), where she is also responsible for the student chamber orchestra, the Portable Camerata. She participated in the four National Festivals of Choro in December 2004, January 2006, February 2007, and February 2008.

In 2008 for the visit of Prince Naruhito from Japan to Brazil as part of the festivities commemorating the centenary of the Japanese immigration to Brazil, Naomi performed a recital of Choros for the prince along side the great choro musicians Luciana Rabello, Mauricio Carrilho, and Pedro Amorim.

Also in 2008 she was featured weekly on the National Radio of Rio de Janeiro as part of the Regional Group from the program Escola Portatil no Ar, (Portable School on the Air.) Each week they played different repertoire for the public with free entrance into the auditorium.

Naomi actively participates in recordings of choro, like “Rancho Carnavalesco Flor do Sereno,” “Jacarandá” by Mauricio Carrilho and Doug De Vries, and “Brasileiro Saxofone,” by Nailor Proveta.