Grammy® Award nominated flutist and composer Ron Korb has released 30 albums in 20 countries and plays a wide variety of indigenous woodwinds from around the world. Ron is on the list of ‘Ten Best Flute Players in the World’ and has won numerous awards.
After graduating the University of Toronto he moved to Tokyo and studied traditional Gagaku music and the shinobue and ryuteki flute with Akao Michiko. While discovering his Japanese heritage he recorded his breakout album Japanese Mysteries with Hiroki Sakaguchi.
As a studio musician he has played on many major films including The Terror, a horror series about a Japanese American community in World War II directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka with Ridley Scott as executive producer. Ron appeared in documentary Stolen Memories about his aunt Kay Kamitakahara and his mother Mariko Joanna Ennyu Korb and the evacuation in British Columbia. Mariko (also known as Mary) taught at the Pine Crescent School in the Slocan Valley where David and Aiko Suzuki and architect Raymond Moriyama were pupils.
He was also appeared on screen in the film Nô by director Robert Lepage set in Osaka and Montreal and based on his play The Seven Streams of the River Ota. He composed the music for the Japan inspired animated short Sister of the Wind (2019) and played shinobue on another Patrick Jenkin’s films, Inner View a tribute to visual artist Kazuo Nakamura.
Ron represented Canada at 2005 Expo Aichi, Japan and the Shanghai International Arts Festival where won the audience choice award. In 2006, the Royal Ontario Museum commissioned Ron to compose and perform an original musical tribute at the opening of the Prince Takamado Gallery with Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado in attendance.
Ron performed and cohosted with Terry Watada and Bryce Kanbara at Being Japanese Canadian: reflections on a broken world gala at the ROM in Toronto in 2019. The exhibit featured works by eight Japanese Canadian artists about the internment. Ron participated with pianist Jamie Parker in the speaker series We Should Know Each Other initiated by an idea author Joy Kogawa and coordinated by photographer Katherine Yamashita. This series was designed to create conversations between members of the Japanese Canadian community.
Ron is first cousins with architect Bruce Kuwabara and first cousins once removed with author Leslie Shimotakahara
