| Kotringo (コトリンゴ) | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Rieko Miyoshi |
| Born | 17 July 1978 Osaka, Japan |
| Genres | pop |
| Occupations | Musician (piano), singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels | avex trax/commmons |
| Associated acts | Ryuichi Sakamoto |
| Website | Official website |
Kotringo (コトリンゴ) is the stage name for Japanese pop singer/songwriter and pianist Rieko Miyoshi (三吉里絵子 Miyoshi Rieko) born in Osaka on 17 of July, 1978. In 2005 she sent in a demo tape to Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Radio Sakamoto" Audition Corner and caught Sakamoto's interest. She would release her first single in November 2006. She has to date released six albums.
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Kotringo was born in Osaka. She later moved west to Fukuoka, and then back east to Nagoya. Kotringo started playing the piano at age five, and began composing music at age seven.
After graduating from high school, Kotringo entered the Koyo Music School in Kobe. In 1999, she was accepted by the Berklee College of Music, where she majored in Jazz composition, arrangement and piano.
At Berklee, Kotringo received numerous awards, including the piano department's Achievement Award. During this time, she took part in the recording of the album "Finder's Keepers", with the Contemporary Jazz Big Bang lead by Michael McAllister, a classmate, accomplished guitar player, and recipient of numerous awards, including the ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Award. Kotringo performed for three years as an accompanist for the voice department at Berkelee and as a pianist for a church in Boston.
After receiving her degree in 2003, she moved to New York and spent a year performing at Detour, Garage, Kaveha's and St. Nicks.
In the fall of 2005, Kotringo began to make music compositions and demo tapes at home. The following March, a composition she sent to Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Radio Sakamoto" Audition Corder (broadcast on J-WAVE, a Tokyo-based FM station covering the Kanto Region) caught Sakamoto's attention. Later, a second single she submitted to the program, "Nichiyo Machi" (Waiting for a Sunday) was broadcast on air. These events lead her to participation in the LOHAS Classical Concert in Kyoto produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto in June, 2006.
In November of the same year, she made her debut with the release of her first single, the Ryuichi Sakamoto produced "Konnichiwa, Mata Ashita", a tie-in song for the Gekkeikan company's "Tsuki" commercial. Sakamoto was impressed by the multitude of Kotringo's talents: the originality of composition, the superb performance on piano, her pure and virginal singing voice crossed with sounds of electronica, all combined to give the effect of visual imagery coming to life from actual pages of a musical score... just like looking at a picture book.
Since 2007 she has produced six albums. The latest album– picnic album 2 – is a cover album of western pop, featuring melodies from Rolling Stones, Petula Clark, Björk and others. The trick & tweet album from 2009 featured, as a bonus track, Kodomo no sekai (こどものせかい; Children's World) the ending theme song to the 2009 animated movie Mai Mai Miracle.
The name “Kotringo” is a combination of sounds taken from the Japanese words for small birds (kotori) and apple (ringo). The name comes from the fact that Kotringo had always kept a pet bird since childhood, and because she used to eat an apple every day. The computer she uses in composing music has a related brand name.