About: Tomoko Sugawara

Tomoko Sugawara is a harpist from Tokyo, Japan who grew up playing classical and Irish harp before learning to play the kugo or angular harp. With Swedish professor Bo Lawergren, whom she met at a kugo museum exhibit in Nara, Japan she engineered a fully working model of a kugo and hired American harp builder Bill Campbell to construct it. After adjusting to the soft sound of the model, she recorded a CD on Motéma Music called , released in 2010, which was a nominee for the Independent Music Awards in the Traditional/World category. She worked with flutist Robert Dick and bendir and darabukka player for pieces composed by Kikuko Masumoto, (based on music from the Tang Dynasty), (1236-1311, Iran), Robert Lombardo, , and Sugawara's own arrangements of works by Alfonso X.