Kotringo is the stage name for Japanese pop singer/songwriter and pianist Rieko Miyoshi 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 released her first single in November 2006.
Biography
Early years
Kotringo was born in Osaka. She later moved west to Fukuoka, and then back east to Nagoya after she finished her fifth year of elementary school. Kotringo started playing the piano at age five, and began composing music at age seven. The first song she wrote was named "A Kitten's Nap".
Musical education
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 and Performance. 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 led by Michael MacAllister, 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.
Back in Japan
In the fall of 2005, Kotringo began to work in finding a way to express her own music with her voice, piano and her MacBook. The following March, a composition she sent to Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Radio Sakamoto" Audition Corner caught Sakamoto's attention. Later, a second single she submitted to the program, "Nichiyo Machi" was broadcast on air. These events lead her to participation in the LOHAS Classical Concert in Kyoto produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto in June, 2006.
Recording career
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 released seven original albums, two cover albums, and five soundtracks. The trick & tweet album from 2009 featured, as a bonus track, Children's World, the ending theme song to the 2009 animated movie Mai Mai Miracle.
About the name
The name “Kotringo” is a combination of sounds taken from the Japanese words for small birds and apple. 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.
