A Queens-based composer, pianist, and Japanese taiko player, Midori Larsen writes music for chamber ensemble featuring Japanese and Western musical instruments. Integrating classically informed melodies and harmonies with ad-lib solos in the style of jazz, her music explores her sense of self as a Japanese immigrant woman and a mother artist in New York City. She is one of the featured composers in 2022 Realms of Courage: Celebrating Asian Women Composers, curated by Angela Han. Midori’s recent  achievements include the 2021 Queens Arts Fund for New Work by the Queens Council on the Arts and Virtual Artist-in-Residence for Asian American Arts Alliance in Winter 2020-2021. 

During her residency at CultureLab LIC, Midori will both create a new piece and develop the existing pieces under her project “Crossing the Seas,” a series of contemporary chamber music compositions for Japanese taiko drums, woodwinds, and piano, based on the migration journeys of her late grandmother and herself. She will explore the lighting designs and moving images to accompany the emotional dynamics of each piece to intensify its message, as well as expand her instrumentation.