The Nippon Club Holiday Party 2023
Thursday, December 21 at the Nippon Club Tower.
The first half of the event will feature a sumptuous buffet dinner. A jazz bar will be open for dinner, where guests can mingle while listening to live jazz music by the Michael Kanan Trio.
This year’s entertainment, titled “Winter Holiday Showtime,” will include opera singing by opera singer Milena Manocchia, a magic show by magician Rich Kameda, and “Let’s Sing Holiday Songs” by pianist Rieko Tsukada and singer Christina Maxwell, who will also serve as the emcee of the party; she will sing Broadway numbers and holiday songs with piano accompaniment. The holiday season is in full swing. In keeping with this year’s theme of “Showtime,” we present a spectacular lineup of entertainment.
And at the end of the event, we will have a raffle prize with great prizes. Please join us with your spouses, parents, children, boyfriend/girlfriend, friends, and colleagues. Of course, you are also welcome to attend alone. We look forward to seeing you at the holiday party!
【Date & Time】
Thursday, December 21
5:30 PM～9:00 PM (EST)
【Venue】
The Nippon Club Tower
（145 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019）
【Fee】
Nippon Club members $180 / Guest/Non-members $220
(incl. dinner & drinks, tax and service fee)
【Dress Code】
Business Casual
Maximum allowedup to 100 guests
We have closed applications as we have reached capacity.
■Time schedule of the event (Tentative)
5:30 pm Open and Check-in begins (Venue: 2F Rose room)
6:00－7:30 pm Dinner (Buffet-style) and Jazz Live
7:30－7:40 pm Opening remark
7:40－8:40 pm Main entertainment (opera singing – magic show – singing on piano)
8:40－9:00 pm Raffle drawing
9:00 pm Closing, end of the event
Christina Maxwell
Christina Maxwell is a New York City-based singer, actress and executive. She currently serves as Director at Related Companies, advising on artwork acquisition, cultural partnerships and mental health strategy across the national portfolio. In her role, she also works as the Executive Director and face of High Line Nine, the Related Companies’ collection of nine immersive exhibition spaces in Chelsea.
Also, a seasoned singer and actress, Maxwell frequently performs in concerts and appears on television. Recently, she was seen performing with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musicians on EDGE in New York City, headlining at Festival Napa Valley and starring on television as the new face and voice of HUMIRA’S national commercial campaign.
Rieko Tsuchida
Since making her Carnegie Hall debut in 2011, prize-winning pianist Rieko Tsuchida has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. Tsuchida made her professional concerto debut in 2011 performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the California Symphony. She has also performed as a soloist with the Ashdod Symphonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, and San Domenico Orchestra. Her many prizes include the SONY USA Foundation Grant in 2016 from the Salon de Virtuosi, YoungArts NFAA Finalist, and 3rd Prize in the IIYM International Piano Competition. She has also been invited to perform at other prestigious festivals and venues such as the Verbier Festival Academy, Salle Gaveau, and more.
Tsuchida currently lives between New York and Paris. In October 2022 she released an album with London Opera cellist Tessa Seymour of Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano as part of a project funded by Académie Musicale de Villecroze. Recent performance highlights include her recital debut at Salle Cortot, the Eiffel Tower, and concerts in Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York. Tsuchida also recently became Artistic Director of Classical Music Collection Japan (CMCJ), a project funded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to promote the classical music culture of Japan. She will make her concert debut in Japan with CMCJ this winter in Tokyo’s Oji Hall.
Tsuchida earned her Bachelor of Music Degree at the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Boris Slutsky. She completed her Master of Music Degree at The Juilliard School in the studios of Dr. Matti Raekallio and Joseph Kalichstein. For more concerts and information, please visit www.riekotsuchida.com.
Milena Manocchia
Milena Manocchia is a young artist on the rise, paving an unprecedented path for herself in the world of Classical Music and beyond. At only 18, Milena has already performed as a Soloist and in Principal Soprano roles across the country at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Festival Boca with artists such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and American Ballet Theatre. Internationally, Milena spent this summer on a three-country tour performing in South Korea, Japan, and in France with Juilliard at the Académie Internationale D’Eté de Nice and International Festival of Nice (Nice Classic Live). Milena has won international competitions including First Place in the American Protégé International Vocal Competition (performance at Carnegie Hall) and Belgium’s Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition. Just this fall season, Milena was named a YoungArts winner in Classical Voice, won a grant from the George London Foundation at Juilliard, and was selected to be presented by the prestigious Salon De Virtuosi (January 24, 2024). Milena will receive a Pre-College Diploma from The Juilliard School in 2024, and has also studied at Manhattan School of Music, NYU Tisch, The British American Drama Academy, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and more. In her two years at Juilliard, Milena has been chosen to debut commissioned pieces for the Juilliard’s “Composer Inclusion Commissioning Initiative” as well as student premieres, and will present a graduation recital at Juilliard on May 4th, 2024.
Rich Kameda
Rich Kameda is a Japanese-American professional magician based in New York City. For thirteen years Rich was a house magician at Ninja New York. When not performing magic he trains for marathons.
Michael Kanan Trio
Michael Kanan, piano
Michael Kanan hails from Boston, Massachusetts where he first began to play the piano at age 7. He started improvising at the keyboard early on, and by age 10 he was listening to jazz. His first instructor was pianist Harvey Diamond, a student of jazz innovator Lennie Tristano. During his years at Boston College, Michael had the opportunity to perform with several jazz greats including Tal Farlow, Lee Konitz, Al Cohn, and Alan Dawson. After graduating college and doing some freelance work around Boston, he moved to New York in 1991 to study with another Tristano student, the pianist Sal Mosca. He established himself in New York, playing and recording with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, and Jorge Rossy, among others. He also developed a growing reputation as a vocal accompanist. In 1996, he joined the band of legendary singer Jimmy Scott, touring the US, Europe, and Japan and recording 4 CDs. In 2001, Michael became the accompanist and arranger for one of today’s most celebrated vocalists, Jane Monheit. With Ms. Monheit’s group, he has toured all over the world, recorded several CDs and DVDs, and made many TV appearances.
Michael can be heard in New York with his trio featuring guitarist Greg Ruggiero and bassist Neal Miner. The group often performs at Mezzrow, the famous Greenwich Village club, where they recorded two live CDs. The group also performs at The Django (in the Roxy Hotel), and Birdland. The trio also performed twice at Weill Hall (the recital room at Carnegie Hall) as part of the Sophia Rosoff Series presented by the Abby Whiteside Foundation. As a sideman Michael has worked all over New York at venues large and small, including The Blue Note, Birdland, Iridium, Dizzy’s, Smalls, Mezzrow, Fat Cat, and many others. For 10 years Michael has had a weekly gig at Arturo’s – another legendary Greenwich Village spot. He has accompanied horn players like Warren Vaché, Ted Brown, Larry McKenna, Joe Magnarelli, and vocalists like Annie Ross, Johnny O’Neal, Gabrielle Stravelli, and Lucy Yeghiazaryan.
Stephanie Greig, bass
Stephanie Greig grew up in a musical household as the only child of Las Vegas jazz bassist Kenny Greig, literally learning the sound of jazz in her sleep as he practiced in the next room. She began working as a jazz bassist in New York in 1998; when she married Michael Kanan in 2000, her father gave her his best bass as a wedding present. Since then, Stephanie and Michael have performed together in a wide variety of jazz settings from New York to the South Pacific, and have developed both an extensive song list and a shared vocabulary of flexible, on-the-spot arrangements.
Stephanie is also active in New York’s contemporary classical music community as a player and composer. She studied with Orin O’Brien and David Grossman of the New York Philharmonic, and has performed with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra since 2007, serving as double bass principal from 2012-2018. Since 2015, she has also written music on a regular basis for chamber concerts and theatrical works through the Concrete Timbre Artists Collective.
Takashi Inoue, drums
Takashi Inoue came to NYC in 2009 from Japan, where he was born in 1976. After graduating from Kyushu Institute of Design and receiving his degree in environmental design, he began working as a professional architect for a couple of years before becoming a city planner for his hometown of Fukuoka, designing master plans of the city. During this time, Inoue began frequenting some of Japan’s “jazz cafes” where he listened to jazz records and became interested in the music. Takashi’s new career as a jazz drummer began when his friends asked him to play drums at their wedding. During the next ten years, he continued to study drums and his other passion, tap dancing. In 2009, Inoue came to NYC, intending to study tap dancing but had a sudden change of plans after meeting the great drummer, Fukushi Tainaka (who has played with the legendary sax player Lou Donaldson for the past 30+ years). Takashi was so impressed with his playing that he asked for a lesson after which Tainaka urged him to consider becoming a professional jazz drummer. He has spent the last fourteen years studying with Tainaka, Jackie Williams, Jimmy Wormworth, Steve Little, Jeff Brillinger, Billy Mintz and Taro Okamoto, and playing in NYC. He has also performed at Smalls, Mezzrow, Cellar Dog, Ornithology, East End Arts’ Winterfest: Jazz on the Vine Festival as well as many venues in and around NYC.
