Tomoko Omura is a composer and violinist. She was named #1 Rising Star Violinist by Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll in 2021. Her fifth album, “Branches Vol. 2” (Outside In Music) was named Bandcamp’s “Best Jazz of 2021”. She has played at internationally renowned venues including the Village Vanguard, Lincoln Center, The Jazz Gallery, Jazz Standard, Smalls, Mezzrow, SF Jazz, Newport Jazz Festival, Blue Note, among others. She has also performed and recorded with many of today’s leading artists including Paquito D’Rivera, Fabian Almazan, Linda Oh, Camila Meza, Aubrey Johnson, Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, The Mahavishnu Project and more.
Her music has been featured on major international publications including Strings magazine, GRAMMY.com, WBGO’s “Jazz United” & “The Pulse”, Bandcamp Daily, Jazz Sessions, Jazz Times, Downbeat, AllAboutJazz, and more.
Born and raised in Shizuoka, Japan, Omura began playing the violin at four year old under her mother’s instruction. Almost quitting the violin as a teenager, Omura discovered jazz when her brother was listening to Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius and later began self-studying jazz on the violin while attending Yokohama National University. In 2004, she relocated to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. She has studied with teachers, such as Hal Crook, Ed Tomassi, George Garzone, Jamey Haddad, Rob Thomas, Matt Glaser. After Berklee, she had been core members and toured with The Guy Mendilow Ensemble, the Contemporary Celtic band, RUNA and Carte Blanche.
Omura moved to New York in 2010 to pursue jazz music and now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her son, Allan, her husband and a jazz pianist, Glenn Zaleski and her cat, Leila. She is currently a New York faculty member of JAZZ HOUSE KiDS.
