An Evening with Hiroya Tsukamoto

“The fingerpicking is delicate, fluid, and beautifully detailed” -Acoustic Guitar Magazine

“…chops, passion and warmth. Zealously recommended!” -Jazz Review.com

“HiroyaTsukamoto takes us to an impressionistic journey ” -Boston Herald

Hiroya is a one-of-a-kind composer, guitarist and singer-songwriter from Kyoto, Japan. He began playing the five-string banjo when he was thirteen, and took up the guitar shortly after.

In 2000, Hiroya received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music and came to the United States. He formed his own group in Boston “INTEROCEANICO (inter-oceanic)” which consists of unique musicians from different continents including Latin Grammy Colombian singer Marta Gomez. The group released three acclaimed records (“The Other Side of the World”, “Confluencia” and “Where the River Shines”). Hiroya has released three solo albums (“Solo”, “Heartland” and “Places”).

Hiroya has been leading concerts internationally including several appearances at Blue Note(NYC), United Nations and Japanese National Television(NHK).  Hiroya won 2nd place in International Finger Style Guitar Championship both in 2018 and 2022.

“…listening to this gentleman’s music, all I had to do was close my eyes and be transported to a babbling brook, a deep canyon, or a West Virginia mountainside. If you ever have a chance to catch a performance by Hiroya Tsukamoto, take it, undoubtedly!” -Heidi Royal (Director of Portage Center for the Arts (Portage, WI)

Hiroya Tsukamoto is a virtuoso guitarist who took our audience on a most beautiful journey. His fluid style of playing is perfect for the peaceful music he produces.  The stories Hiroya told kept everyone spellbound anticipating the next line and the next note.  This artist is a rare talent and it was a privilege to introduce him to our audience.  Our show with Hiroya was easy and enjoyable. I highly recommend this artist to any host/venue and I am confident he would be everything a host would want and more.  Pre-show communication was timely and a more appreciative house guest would be hard to find.  Book Hiroya as soon as you possibly can for a show you will not soon forget.  -Danielle Goodband (Lakehouse Music / Manhattan, KS)

“His style can be described as a blend of folk, jazz, and world music, so I really didn’t know what to expect. What I didn’t expect, though, was to witness one of the best live guitar performances of my life. But that’s exactly what happened. In terms of musicianship, Tsukamoto’s guitar work was just ridiculous. Right from the beginning of his first song, it was obvious that the folks in Bernunzio’s were in for a treat. His brand of fingerstyle guitar is so intricate, and so blazingly fast at the same time, I kept imagining how many clones I would need to make of myself to accurately replicate his sound. There were times it sounded as if there were two or three guitars playing simultaneously One song that drove that point home was his set opener, “From Coast to Coast”, a song that had some of the fastest harmonic runs I’ve heard.” -Trevor Lewis (Rochester Newspaper)