Makoto Ozone, who majored in Jazz arrangement and composition, graduated summa cumlaude from Berklee College of Music. He also gave a solo recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City that year. This was his debut album, OZONE, and he became the first Japanese musician to exclusively be signed to CBS. He has been a star in jazz, earning him a Grammy nomination in 2003. He founded the Japanese big band “No Name Horses” in 2004. Since then, Ozone has performed in Japan, France, Austria and the US. Ozone has been playing works from classical music in recent years. They have performed concertos by Bernstein and Mozart with major orchestras in Japan and overseas. These performances are highly acclaimed by the media. The North Germany Hannover Newspaper also said that the audience was “fascinated and overwhelmed by Ozone’s extraordinary performance.” Road to Chopin was published in 2010 to celebrate the bicentenary Chopin’s birthday and awarded him the “Chopin Passport” from the Polish government. He was named by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Alan Gilbert to participate in their Asian tour as the first Japanese jazz pianist. Later, he performed at Avery Fisher Hall in their home concert hall. He was warmly received by the audience and was highly praised by media such as The New York Times. Ozone was also invited by the San Francisco Symphony to perform in their concert later that same year. Ozone’s third collaboration with Gary Burton, Time Thread, was released in June 2013. This led to a tour of Japan. They formed a quartet in 2015 with Tom Kennedy, Dave Weckl and Gary Meek and began a tour of the USA, Europe and Japan. The first ever nationwide Chick Corea-led duo tour of Japan was held in May 2016. The year 2017 was already a busy one for the pianist. In March, Gary Burton announced his retirement and Ozone toured the US and then, in May and June, through Japan. The TRIO, Clarence Penn, James Genus and THE TRIO, released Dimensions in August. Once again, the New York Philharmonic invited him to perform three days consecutively at their regular concerts at the David Geffen Hall (renamed Avery Fisher Hall in 2015). 2018 Awarded Shiju-HouShyou (The Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon) from https://makotoozone.com