Mandolin master Taro Inoue juxtaposes bluegrass music with his Japanese roots, inviting the listener to see beyond cultural and musical assumptions, and to consider a world where the only thing that matters is being our truest, most authentic selves.
The shining wood and delicate strings of the lovely instrument at first seem dwarfed by the man holding it. ⦆Then Taro Inoue’s tense and ready fingers wrap around the mandolin in his hands, and a world of rhythm and melodies explodes from those same delicate strings. Taro began playing the mandolin at the age of fourteen years old and came to love the instrument. He went on to hone his skills at East Tennessee State University in the United States where he developed his distinctive bluegrass-infused sound. ⦆Taro’s masterful, intricate mandolin melodies have led him to perform as a member of ‘TARO & JORDAN’ and ‘The CASH’, as well as ⦆with many top musicians in the United States, Canada and Japan. ⦆The juxtaposition of Taro’s bluegrass music with his Japanese roots invites the listener to see beyond cultural and musical assumptions, and to consider a world where the only thing that matters is being our truest, most authentic selves.