biography

I was composer/music director for the Reader's Theatre Project from the Children's Museum of Los Angeles from 1993 to 2008, writing music for children's books and adapting stories/art into song and dance (CD demo: Songs from Readers' Theatre: Celebrating Children's Books). I wrote about 100 songs derived from a wide selection of popular children's books, performing them at schools and literacy/cultural events throughout Southern California.

I composed "Rock the Planet", an interactive music video for the Environmental Defenders and the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, now touring California schools. My musical adaptation of "Walking Through The Jungle" (book by Debbie Harter, Barefoot Books) is published in a book/CD package, and is available in Spanish, "De Paseo Por La Selva". You can hear "booksong" demo samples in the music page of this website.

I am a member of the Grateful Crane Ensemble / Moonlight Serenaders, presenting bilingual plays and music (Japanese/English) to Nikkei seniors in JA communities throughout California - performing The Camp Dance: the Music and the Memories and Nihonmachi: the Place to Be. I am a recipient of a Cultural Heritage Award (Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California) for musical contributions to the community. I musical direct the Nisei Week Coronation (held annually in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo), where the Nisei Week Queen is selected.

I musical direct and play music at many community venues and events in Los Angeles, including: Keiro Nursing & Retirement Homes, the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, the L.A. Times Festival of Books, the Japanese American National Museum, and Visual Communications.

Composer: Pawns of the King (2005), by filmmakers Ming Lai and Michael Blair. Visas and Virtue (1998 - Oscar®-winning live-action short film) and Day of Independence (2003), by Chris Tashima & Cedar Grove Productions. My original music was heard in actress Amy Hill's trilogy of acclaimed one-woman shows: Tokyo Bound, Beside Myself, and Reunion.

Musical theatre: Joe's Garage, The Ten Commandments, Passion, Little Shop of Horrors, The World Goes 'Round, Follies, Beijing Spring, Pacific Overtures, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Company, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Medium, A Chorus Line, A Grand Night for Singing, The Fantasticks, Happy End, The Threepenny Opera, Camelot, Mack and Mabel, The Sound of Music, Once on this Island, Gypsy, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Fiddler on the Roof. My musical direction and arrangements are heard on the CD East West Overtures, with music producer-engineer Joel Iwataki.

Ojiisan Kichigoro was one of the first Issei men picked up by the FBI in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles on December 7, 1941. At the time of his arrest, he was 60 years old and owned and operated a hotel business. Kichigoro served with the Japanese Imperial Army during the 1904 Russian-Japanese war. The machine gun bullet that wounded him was too close to his spine to ever be removed. Kichigoro hated war, and spoke regretfully of the human wave assault that his company staged to seize the 203 Meter Hill, a historic battle and costly victory for the Imperial Army. Kichigoro spent much of WWII in alien camps along with many fellow Issei who were Russian-Japanese war veterans. Japanese citizenship, Japanese Imperial Army military records, and Little Tokyo (American) civic and community leader status - were enough evidence to make Kichigoro a threat to 1941 U.S. homeland security. Ojiisan left his U.S. families behind to return to his hometown (furusato) in 1948. He passed away in Japan on Dec. 31, 1954.

Ojiisan's sons and grandsons served in the U.S. military during WWII, the U.S.-Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Kichigoro and his bloodline are honest, hard-working, peace-loving men caught in tragic world, regional and local wartime circumstances. They have wives and families, and they live-laugh-love and work-prosper-play in America. They love the nature, mountains, valleys, deserts, trees, rivers and oceans that surround their homes. They love their countries, from L.A. County to Hiroshima Prefecture. They love PEACE, children and art.

During WWII, my father was a builder in Jerome, Arkansas. His parents lived in Hanford, a small town in the central California farming region. He is a retired aerospace engineer. In 1942, my mother was an actress in Manzanar Relocation Center, California. She attended Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights (East L.A.) and was once Cordelia to King Lear, later offered a partial acting scholarship to UCLA. One brother is an internationally reknown photographer and college professor in New Mexico. Another brother is coach/mentor of the L.A. Yellow Brotherhood basketball organization and a lawyer for the Children's Court of Los Angeles. My eldest daughter works for Congressman Michael Honda in Washington D.C. My Japan relatives live in Higashi-Hiroshima and Katsuyama, Japan. I am Japanese-American. Sansay Music is dedicated to ancestors, families, and children of the world.

During the first month of kindergarten, an old nun entered my classroom and asked for volunteers for something or another. Noticing everyone else raising their hands, I raised mine as well and was immediately chosen from Miss Ruth's kindergarten class to take piano lessons from the old nun, Sister St. Agnes. I practiced a lot, and playing the piano felt good. In 1960, Sister St. Agnes was over 75 years old, but seemed closer to 100. She had been sent by the Catholic archdiocese authorities (God and Jesus?) to St. Bernadette's Elementary School in Los Angeles to live out her days in the warm California sun, teaching piano to children. Sister St. Agnes was a passionate lover of music and a gentle teacher, though she forgot a lot of things and was often very confused... in a funny sort of way. She never knew my name, neither my correct first name or Japanese last name. She called me "John" because of some biblical reference she insisted upon identifying me with. Sister St. Agenes wrote a letter to me many years later, addressed to "Master John Scott." It was a remarkable relationship and I was very fortunate to be introduced to music by this beloved woman of God. (Incidentally, I am now a non-practicing Buddhist.)

Around 1963, I began studying piano with Nobuko Fujimoto. She is a Nisei classical piano prodigy whose own musical aspirations and opportunities were cut short by World War II... though her passion and love of music could not be diminished. I've studied with her my entire life, and we still live within walking distance to each other.

November, 2005 - 2-week trip to Japan. "To a Child of War - Kizu Tsuita Kodomotachi e" was offered to: the United States Department of the Interior staff at Manzanar National Historic Site, Osaka International Peace Center, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Music was also offered to various schools and children's choirs in the Hiroshima area, with musical collaborations between American and Japanese children being planned... musical chain letters, so to speak. The purpose of this visit was to "draw a musical line from Manzanar to Hiroshima" to honor my families on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, and to "draw a musical line" between Japanese and Japanese-Americans.

November, 2006 - 1-week trip to Higashi Hiroshima, Japan. Both of my paternal grandparents, Ryoichi & Ayame (Matsunaga) Nagatani, come from the same village in the Higashi (East) Hiroshima area. The trip celebrated the joint bilingual recording of "Furusato" (Tatsuyuki Takano/Teiichi Okano) by the students of Kouyo Jr. High School and the Grateful Crane Ensemble. 15-year old relative Kazuki Nagatani, a 9th grader at Kouyo Jr. H.S., participated in the singing. Roughly translated into English, "Furusato" means "My Country Home". A musical bridge was built between Higashi Hiroshima and Los Angeles, and both the Japanese students and Sansei vocalist Keiko Kawashima sang together as one voice. Music was also offered to a preschool and senior hospital where my Nagatani relatives in Higashi Hiroshima work at.