MEG OKURA & PAN ASIAN JAZZ ENSEMBLE
A Defining New Work from One of Jazz’s Most Visionary Composer-Performers
Meg Okura’s “Isaiah” Unites Virtuosic Craft, Cultural Memory, and a Groundbreaking Commission Into Her Most
Personal Statement Yet
Out February 20, 2026 on Adhyâropa Records
“…the premiere violinist, jazz or otherwise, of our time.”
— Jim McNeely, composer/pianist
“A profound musical statement—emotionally rich, expansive, and visionary.”
— Regina Carter, NEA Jazz Master
Violinist, composer, and outspoken cultural iconoclast Meg Okura returns with Isaiah (Adhyâropa Records, February 20, 2026) — aradiant new album marking the 20th anniversary of her Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble (PACJE) and the arrival of a fully realizedjazz-composer voice shaped by a lifetime across musical worlds. Isaiah is a testament to Okura’s extraordinary achievement as acomposer: fresh off a major symphonic milestone, she recently returned from Long Beach, CA, where she premiered her Shaon Overture — a work for 68-piece Symphonic Jazz Orchestra featuring Okura as the jazz violin soloist—as the winner ofthe SJO George Duke Commissioning Prize. She was also honored with the International Society of Jazz Arrangers &Composers’ Fundamental Freedoms Commission, placing her firmly among today’s most original compositional voices.
Long acclaimed as a virtuoso violinist, Okura has increasingly emerged as one of contemporary jazz’s most distinctivecomposer-bandleaders. Isaiah deepens her reputation as a boundary-crossing innovator whose artistic voice is tied to an ongoingprocess of self-definition.
Drawing on her lived experience and the ensemble language she has built over two decades, Okura describes the new album as “amusical memoir of my shifting identities… a realm where I am not an outsider.” From her upbringing in Japan, to her embrace ofJudaism, to her life as a Japanese Jewish American in an interracial family, Okura uses composition as a space where these identitiescoexist.
“Through PACJE, I have shaped a sound distinctly my own, not bound to a single style but defined by the freedom to move amongthem,” she writes in the liner notes — a sentiment the album expresses with cinematic sweep, chamber-music intimacy, and therhythmic fluidity of modern jazz.
Featuring Okura’s longtime PACJE collaborators, Isaiah unfolds as an emotionally rich, stylistically expansive suite. The opening track,“Sushi Gadol,” pays tribute to her brother and bursts with explosive gestures and restless energy, establishing a spirit of defiance.“Blessing,” inspired by the Pre-Haftarah Blessing she and her daughter both chanted at their bat mitzvahs, reframes sacred melodythrough orchestral and jazz-waltz textures.
The album’s centerpiece, “African Skies,” reimagines Michael Brecker’s iconic composition through Okura’s previous work “Afrasia,”turning a foundational influence into something unmistakably her own. Okura toured and recorded the song with the late tenorsaxophonist; so it is central to her identity as a musician, with Michael’s brother, Randy, as guest soloist, furthering the Brecker legacy.
“Rice Country,” composed during her Aaron Copland House Residency, explores immigrant identity through a Japanese popfragment refracted into Copland-esque Americana. “Jubberish,” commissioned by Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works,transforms her daughter’s childhood phrase (“Gibberish, but Jewish”) into a playful, imaginary folk language.
Performers include flautist Anne Drummond, clarinetist Sam Sadigursky, keyboardist Brian Marsella, guitarist John Lee, bassist EvanGregor, and drummer Peter Kronreif, alongside special guests soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome, trumpeter Randy Brecker, altosaxophonist Remy Le Boeuf, and percussionist Rogério Boccato — artists whose sensibilities amplify the album’s emotional breadth.
With Isaiah, Okura is also stepping into a broader public role as a writer, speaker, and cultural thinker. Her brand new Substacknewsletter and podcast, Meg’s Un-Kosher Notes will explore the intersections of identity, faith, race, art, and freedom of expression —extending the conversation that her music begins.
Praised by The New York Times for “grandiloquent beauty that transitions easily from grooves to big cascades to buoyant swing,”Okura now unites her musical mastery with a newly expansive cultural vision — shaping an experience that transcends genre,language, and identity.
Personnel
Meg Okura – violin, erhu, vocals
Anne Drummond – flute
Sam Sadigursky – bass clarinet, clarinet
David Smith – trumpet
Rebecca Patterson – trombone
Riza Printup – harp
John Lee – guitar
Brian Marsella – piano
Evan Gregor – bass
Peter Kronreif – drums
UPCOMING RELEASE
