Gen 絃 – Phill Wilson and Takako Nishibori

Takako was born in Otsu, Shiga Japan. She started playing the koto at the age of six. Takako studied

the Koto with Grand Master Shizu Fujino (a student of Michio Miyagi) from Ikuta Ryu Miyagi school.

She commenced her studies of the Shamisen, at the age of 16. In 2000, Takako received her teaching

license from the Miyagi school of Tokyo. She was placed in the top ten for all of Japan.

Takako’s first visit to Australia was in 2001. During this time, she performed for various schools in

NSW and ACT and began to explore new ways of playing the Koto. After returning to Japan, Takako

moved to Newcastle in order to commence a Masters of Educational Studies. She moved to Brisbane

in 2005. Recent tours have included North Qld (BEMAC Ethno on the Road), “koto Evolution East to

West” the Sydney international koto festival, and Japan. Takako is currently on staff at the University

of Queensland, as a sessional academic, and curates an annual concert at St John’s Cathedral. Takako

is the founder of koto Brisbane.

Phill has been a consultant and composer for Deep Blue Orchestra (Winners of the 2009 APACA

Drover Award), on staff at QUT as a sessional academic. He has performed at festivals such as Livid,

Big Day out, Soundwave, Falls, Vans Warped (Australia) Melkweg (Europe) Hue (Vietnam) as well as

touring Australia, Japan and Europe. Recent tours have included France, Malaysia and Vietnam –

while works have been performed at the 2010 world expo, Shanghai; 2012 Lantern Festival, Taiwan;

as well as India, Indonesia and Thailand. He was a finalist in the 2005 Oz Music awards (classical) and

received a star on the Brisbane city Brunswick Street rock’n’roll walk of fame 2008. Recent projects

include tracking for the video game “Grand theft Auto V”.

Recent Gen絃performances include a tour of North Qld, “The refuge of Rhythm” concert Brisbane

city hall, Qld Parliment house, “Utamono” Bemac, “Future Beauty” GOMA, “Big Sound” music

conference, “Planet world music” Brisbane Power House, “Hougaku Kikou” Brisbane City Hall Concert

series, “Kakehashi Tohoku” Bemac theatre and the Brisasia festival. Other performances include pubs,

clubs, galleries and street busking. Gen絃has also performed with Taiko drummer, Bashow Kanagawa.

Gen絃released a self-titled Ep in 2014. The track “mr g” was included on the Bemac world music

compilation cd, “Echoes”. Gen 絃 are currently writing material for a new album and are developing

a collaborative performance project for 2018, with a view for touring.