Darryl Tanikawa, Executive Director

DARRYL TANIKAWA’s relationship with AASA began when his long time friend, David Benoit, called one morning in search of a new Orchestra Contractor and Personnel Manager for his Asia America Symphony Orchestra – which he accepted. After a year, responsibilities of Director of Artist Relations were added to help secure and oversee the special guest Artists presented by AASA such as Hiroshima, The Ahn Trio, Angel Romero, Karen Han and of course this year’s star studded line-up of Michael Paulo, June Kuramoto, and Keiko Matsui. In June 2006 he was asked to assume the responsibilities of Executive Director to streamline, direct, and bring together the many wonderful supporters and volunteers of AASA in an effort to realize AASA’s mission statement and Music Director David Benoit’s vision of innovative and creative musical presentations, community outreach programs, and the commitment of educating our young musicians through the gift of music. Darryl’s background is unique because it is based on his experience as a professional musician, producer, teacher, & orchestra contractor.

For over 7 ½ years, as Producer & Director of Production for the late Steve Allen at Meadowlane Enterprises and Meadowlane Music, he produced and coordinated numerous “live” concerts, radio & television appearances, CD recordings, videos, songbooks, film and television clip licensing, music supervision, the Steve Allen Big Band, and working with every facet of the entertainment industry including such labels as Fantasy/Contemporary Records, Varese Sarabande, Summit records, SeaBreeze Jazz, Murger Records, Valley Entertainment, Fox-Lorber, and Hal Leonard.

As a professional musician, he has been presented as featured soloist in several chamber music concert series including Sundays at Four (broadcast “live” on KUSC-FM) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Discovery series at the South Bay Center for the Performing Arts Marsee Auditorium, the Chamber Music Summit Concerts at the CSU Northridge Performing Arts Center, in recital at the Scherr Forum Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, featured guest artist at the Music Academy of the West, featured at the world renowned Crystal Cathedral, heard on KUSC-FM, KPFK-FM, KCSN-FM and NPR’s Performance Today, has recorded on numerous classical, contemporary, pop CD recordings, and is the clarinetist heard on Alfred Publishing’s Music Theory: Ear Training CDs.

Along with serving as principal clarinet of the Asia America Symphony Orchestra, Darryl is also a member of the Glendale Symphony Orchestra, Pacifica Woodwind Quintet (Co-founder), performs regularly as Principal with the Bel-Air Presbyterian Chamber Orchestra, Royal Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Cabrillo Music Theatre Orchestra at the Kavli Theater, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, and was a member of the Pavarotti World Tour 2001 Orchestra at the Indian Wells Tennis Center, the 3 Tenors World Tour 2000 Orchestra at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas and the Pavarotti World Tour 2000 Orchestra at The Forum, Los Angeles.

He has performed as Principal clarinet for such artists as: Theodore Bikel, Robert Guilluome, Dale Kristien, Amanda McBroom, Ben Vereen, Jack Black, Ted Neeley, Evonne Elliman, Richard Kinsey, James Walker, David Benoit, David Shostac, John Tesh, the late Steve Allen, Kevin Bailey, Sally Kellerman, Bill Watrous, Suzanna Guzman, Carol Lawrence to name a few. He has performed with many of Southern California’s top professional regional orchestras such as the: Long Beach Symphony Pops, Long Beach Mozart Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, Orange County Philharmonic, Redlands Symphony, Riverside Symphony, Antelope Valley Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, Westchester-Marina Del Rey Symphony, San Fernando Valley Symphony and Opera Ala Carte Orchestras, to name a few.

Winner of a 4-year Music Achievement Scholarship to attend California State University, Northridge, he was a student of Roy D'Antonio and holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance. After winning a fellowship from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Association, he was a student for 8 years of the orchestras’ principal clarinet, Lorin Levee, and was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestral Training Program, Orchestra and Woodwind Quintet. Darryl enjoys teaching private music students, coaching master classes, arranging orchestral & chamber music, serving as a clinician & adjudicator, producing & recording CDs, enjoys traveling, cycling, tennis, and table-tennis.