First Voice History

2010: First Voice Honoree National Japanese Historical Society; for 30 years of music and story-making; Purple Moon Honors Brenda Wong Aoki with DreamSpeakers Award.

2009: Consul General of Japan, Yasu Nagamine, honors First Voice with Certificate of Honor from San Francisco Board of Supervisors for being outstanding artists of international merit; Consulate Residence San Francisco

Mark Izu Wins Emmy for Bolinao52 score

Return of the Sun

2009: First Voice Musical Director, Mark Izu, awarded Northern California Emmy; Songs for Sensei premieres De Young Museum

2009: Return of the Sun, commissioned by World Arts West and presented at the 2009 EthnicDance Festival and First Voice Home Season, Aoki writer/narrator, Izu musical director/composer

2001-2009: Ghost Festival runs for 8 consecutive years, the first one being at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.  Our goal was to create a community of friends who gathered annually to celebrate deep connections between people.

Circle of Fire Ensemble

2008: Circle of Fire releases Threading Time, a rare recording featuring Japanese Imperial Court Master Gagaku Musician Togi Suenobu, Tabla Master Zakir Hussain, with Otsuzumi master, Okura Shonosuke and vocalist Yoko Fujimoto of KODO.

Cast of Morning Glory

2008: Legend of Morning Glory; a Kabuki Taiko Oratorio commissioned in part by the US/JAPAN Friendship Commission at Friend Center for the Arts, JCCSF

Aoki writer/narrator, Izu musical director/composer

2007: US/Japan Commission Fellowship to Japan;
First Voice receives five month research fellowship to live in Tokyo and Mt. Fuji

2006: First Voice with Gagaku Master Togi Suenobu (last U.S. performance prior to his death); San Francisco, Honolulu, Kauai Community College and University Hawaii, Hilo. Aoki writer/narrator, Izu musical director/composer

2005: Tales of Love and Passion; First Voice with U.S. National Heritage Master Seiichi Tanaka, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco; Aoki writer/performer, Izu musical director/composer

Kuan-Yin Ensemble

2002: Kuan-yin: Our Lady of Compassion; Aoki writer/narrator, Izu musical director/composer; Commissioned by the Hong Kong Cultural Center and performed at the Esplanade in Singapore and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, directed by Tang Shu-Wing (recipient of Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres)

Uncle Gungiro

2002: First Voice represents the U.S. at the Adelaide International Festival, Australia (Uncle Gunjiro’s Girlfriend); Aoki writer/narrator, Izu musical director/composer

1998: Uncle Gunjiro’s Girlfriend, monodrama with musician; directed by Diane Rodriguez Bay Area Playwrights festival, New American Playwrights Festival San Jose, CA, Solo Mio Festival at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. Aoki writer/narrator, Izu musical director/composer

Mermaid

1997: Mermaid, monodrama with symphony with composer Mark Izu; conducted by Kent Nagano & the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, directed by Jael Weisman.  Premiere, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley;
Aoki writer/narrator, Izu musical director/composer

1995: Mark and Brenda found First Voice

1995: Hibakusha; premiere of oratorio with Kurak tribal singers and Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb on the 50th commemoration of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
Composed by Mark Izu

1994: Random Acts, solo, directed by Jael Weisman; premiered at La Peña, Berkeley, performed at the Feld Museum Chicago, National Storytelling Festival Jonesborough Tennessee, Dallas Theatre Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; published in Extreme Exposure: Solo theater from the 20th Century, Theatre Communications Group, New York, NY 2000; Written & performed by Brenda Wong Aoki

The Queens Garden

1992: Soul of the Great Bell, a multidisciplinary collaboration, with composer Mark Izu; performance with San Jose Taiko, written, directed and narrated by Brenda Wong Aoki, premiered San Jose Repertory Theater, San Jose, CA.

1992: The Queens Garden,  narrator with bass player and saxophone; directed by Jael Weisman, premiere in Solo Mio Festival, San Francisco, run at San Diego Repertory Theatre, Asia Society, New York City, East West Center, Honolulu, Smithsonian Institute Washington D.C., Highways, Santa Monica, CA. Aoki writer/performer, Izu musical director/composer

1990: Tales of the Pacific Rim, storytelling for children; directed by Jael Weisman; premiered in Solo Mio Festival, San Francisco, CA; performed at Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.; Black Storytelling Festival, New York; and Vancouver Folk Festival; Written and performed by Brenda Wong Aoki

1988: Obake: Some Japanese Ghosts, monodrama; directed by Jael Weisman premiered in Solo Mio Festival, San Francisco; run at San Diego Repertory Theatre; New Victory Theatre, New York; Whitney Museum of Art, New York; and Sapporo University, Japan. Written and performed by Brenda Wong Aoki

1988: Tokyo Form and Spirit Exhibition: “Invocation,” a duet performance piece with composer/musician Mark Izu, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA.

1987: Seven Steps to Go with SoundSeen, a Zen cabaret quartet; directed by Jael Weisman, Life on the Water Theatre, San Francisco, Written and performed in collaboration with Sachiko Nakamura, Lewis Jordan, Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu.

1986: Type O with SoundSeen, a Zen cabaret quartet; directed by Jael Weisman, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco; Written and performed in collaboration with Sachiko Nakamura, Lewis Jordan, Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu.

1985: Whisperings performance duet with writer/dancer Brenda Wong Aoki and composer/bassist Mark Izu premiere at Long Beach Museum of Modern Art; Ohana Cultural Center, Oakland; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco.

1st Asian American Jazz Fest Poster

1981-2001: Mark starts and becomes head curator of the Asian American Jazz Festival, the longest running jazz festival in SF at the Asian Art Museum.

1979 – 85: AJI (Aoki/Jordan Improvisations) African American poet and saxophone player and dancer Brenda Wong Aoki, Lewis Jordan Poetry and Dance, San Francisco Bay Area

1979: Mark and Brenda begin creating work together