Miho Wada

Miho Wada was born in Tokyo and grew up by the beach in Miyazaki, Kyushu Island, Japan. Her family moved to Christchurch, New Zealand in 1996 where she developed many of her musical ideas. She started her musical training at the age of three on piano at the Yamaha School of Music and also took up the trumpet, marimba, snare drum, accordion, recorders and alto saxophone before finally discovering the flute.



Miho's busy career took off while living in New Zealand performing all around the country winning prizes and scholarships. Soon after she completed her Bachelor of Music she was invited to perform in Japan, Australia, Italy and UK. She moved to London in 2002 first to study with Paul Edmund-Davies (Principal Flute, London Symphony Orchestra 1984 - 2004) and later enrolled to study for the Postgraduate Diploma with Lynda Coffin at the Trinity College of Music. Miho held several posts in European orchestras including the National Orchestra of Malta in Valletta and the Haydn Chamber Orchestra in London under Sir Colin Davis.



Purely by accident in 2003 she was discovered by Nigel Kennedy at the Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club and she later performed jazz trio concerts with him in London and Malven. Since then Miho has been performing more original materials and has been broadcasted on BBC, ITV, SKY 2, Karrang Radio, Knightflow, BRfm, NHK (Japan), Niigata Radio and television (Japan), Canterbury television (New Zealand), TeleTell (Switzerland) and Nippon Television (Japan).



More recently Miho discovered her passion for Cuban Music and spent two months living in Santiago de Cuba training under the Sones de Oriente and Kotumba members. In February 2008 she studied and performed alongside with members of the Sierra Maestra and the Buena Vista Social Club during the Cuban Jazz Festival in Havana. She has also given performances at the world famous Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba.



In 2008 Miho took up playing the saxophone again to play a few shows in a big band. Though being a doubler ended up opening more doors than expected; playing in West End shows and touring around the world with different groups. During her most recent tours she performed with the Ska Cubano (as their alto sax player) on the WOMAD festivals' main stages in Adelaide (AU) and Taranaki (NZ), supported Neil Finn, mentored by Sean Kuti and performed with Liam Finn, Connan Mockasin and members of the Fat Freddys Drop and Batucada Sound Machine.

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