Shota Horikawa

Shota Horikawa is an educator and performer who has just started teaching music in Southern California. He aims to bring students a musical experience that reaches beyond the "band-and-orchestra-only" paradigm that dominates today's music education so that they will have the experience and the tools necessary to become better-educated consumers of music and become the next generation of musical trendsetters. 

        Born and raised under the warm Southern California sun, Shota Horikawa started his bass career as a snot-faced middle-schooler under the influence of his quirky, yet infectious music teacher. From there he developed a passion for the bass and all of its applications which included classical music, jazz, musicals, rock, funk, and everything and anything else. Before he could realize what he was getting himself into, he was dropped-off in the far-away land of Ohio where he attended the Oberlin Conservatory. There, he studied with Thomas Sperl, Scott Dixon, and Peter Dominguez to learn how to not be horrible at the bass(a.k.a. Bachelors in Bass Performance) and talk to computers a little bit(computer pun!) in Java, Python, C, and MIPS. Unfortunately, he did not finish his degree in how to survive Ohio winters, so he ended up having to stay another (how ironic) and ended up picking up a Masters in Music Teaching along the way. He is a trained Orff Schulwerk practitioner and incorporates the Orff teachings into his music ideology and teaching. 

        Shota is now teaching music in the Rowland Unified School District in Los Angeles County and is also teaching the bass privately. He hopes that he will be able to ignite the same musical sparks that his middle-school music teacher was able to light for him in his students as well as challenge them to be innovators to help broaden the already expansive musical landscape that we have today. He is also playing small gigs in the area so either say hi to him or throw tomatoes at him if you see him.

        In addition to music, Shota is interested in dogs, scrambling mountains, general shenanigans, long drives, and making things (usually out of food, wood, computer guts, or leather). He's been to 48/50 states so far and plan to hit the last two in the next two years. Extra points if you guess which two he still need to go to.