Akito Kuramoto returns to Music Island. Founding artist, first MI performance ever.

I am really looking forward to a concert this Saturday morning at 8:30 am SLT (Pacific Time). I hope you mark your calendars to come out.

Akito Kuramoto is the avatar name of a young French physician who also happens to play violin wonderfully. He's been somewhat torn between music and medicine all his adult life and certainly plays at a level where it could have been his chosen career. He has played for 26 years of his 33 years on the planet and continues to play actively with amateur ensembles.

Akito was at the founding meeting of Music Island and a big part of shaping the series we have now. He played the first concert ever hosted there. Cedar Island created an "artist in residence"role for him as he was performing a monthly concert for about a year. His style of introducing each piece on his program with an informal, approachable chat set a style and tone for the Music Island concert series that subsequent musicians who became part of the family adopted, either directly from Akito, or from those who emulated him later.

Akito was also one of my closest friends in SL. He always brought out and encouraged the best in me and helped me through some rocky times when I felt at sea personally and in some despair at times while trying to establish the Music Island series.

This past year, Akito has been almost totally absent from Second Life while he pursued a highly specialized field of medicine. I have missed him as a friend and the classical audience has missed his performance and the passion for music that he conveys in both his playing and his commentary.

This week I did a soundcheck with Akito and a new audience member wandered in. I explained to him that he was welcome to stay but that it was just a brief soundcheck. Akito ended up playing for about 15 minutes and the guy who wandered in said, "Gee I'm glad I crashed the soundcheck. I enjoyed it more than any concert I've been at in SL, so far".