Mike Penny

Mike Penny is an American Tsugaru shamisen player, composer and teacher in Los Angeles. He started shamisen in late 2004 in Santa Cruz, California, with Kevin Kmetz. In 2007-08 a Japan Foundation Uchida Fellowship took him to Tokyo to study with Toyoaki Fukushi.

He was the second non-Japanese player to place at the annual international Tsugaru shamisen tournament in Hirosaki. His piece “Cruzian Grass” won Global Rhythm’s songwriting contest in 2005, and he has played hundreds of concerts in the U.S. and Japan.

He mixes shamisen with jazz, Balkan folk, Western classical and contemporary music, and has a large YouTube following. He has recorded shamisen for Ghost of Tsushima, Blue Eye Samurai and Samurai Rabbit, and works at the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles.