Biography
Known for her unique daring performances where she often combines multi-disciplines/genres and media, Sarah Infini Takagi has emerged as an original thinker, creator, and performer who is unafraid to redefine, reinvent, and expand the concept of music, identity, and performance in the context of innovation and her spiritual practice.
Coming from generations of Samurai warriors and Christian ministers, Sarah is dedicated to the fire and healing gifts of the Spirit in the creative realm. Through her often provocative, innovative programming, presentation, and performances, she cuts through dull, lifeless traditions, labels, and categories thereby awakening and enlivening the audience to realize the potential for more fresh, spirited, authentic performance.
As an award-winning pianist*(For additional info about her classical piano bio, go to https://sarahinfinitakagi.com/classical-piano)Sarah Infini Takagi has performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and 92nd Y as well as on Public Television, Radio, and Film. As a concerto soloist, she has performed over a dozen concerti under the batons of BSO conductors Pascal Verrot and Carl St. Clair among others. As a chamber musician, she has performed with Boston's top chamber groups, Radius, and Chameleon Ensembles as well as with her own Duo PiantiCella with Longy-Bard College faculty cellist Michael Bonner. Her solo CD “Lavender Bouquet” which offered classical music with Reiki healing energy was the Top Selling Album in 2008 at CDBaby.com. Most recently, she has been invited to perform as part of the 78th Anniversary Gala of the United Nations at the Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium on December 11th, 2023.
In 2014, she released “@Play” her first all-original improvisation CD recorded live from her solo show with guest artist singer Sarah Rogo. As an improviser, she has performed on piano and synthesizers with singers, dancers, mime, and yoga dancers, as well as with interactive fractal images on the screen. Her video featuring her multidisciplinary collaboration with established performing artists C. Neil Parsons and Greg Jukes ( from the Fourth Wall) where they improvised between piano, drums, and dance; was recently recognized by the international performing arts organization, HAIKARA ART(https://fb.watch/7qLyg3tGP8/) as an outstanding work of art by a Nikkei artist. In recent years, she has found herself as an improviser beyond her first instrument; improvising as a dancer, actress, singer, and clown.
Most recently, she has become a popular speaker on the topic of improvisation where she gave a presentation on the topic of Classical Improvisation to NEPTA, as well as for the Music Teachers’ Association of California, and Opus 119 Conservatory in Los Angeles, CA. Most recently, She was invited as a guest lecturer on the topic of Improvisation, Comedy, and Jazz at her alma mater, New England Conservatory College Piano Performance Seminar. In Fall, 2023, she joined the improvisation faculty at the New England Conservatory Prep/SCE and she is very excited to announce that she will be launching a first class of its kind “Let’s Improv Classical” an improvisation class for classical students at the NEC Prep school starting January 2024.
In recent years, she has emerged as a composer whose works range from pop songs, and classical piano pieces, to recompositions of Beethoven, original cadenzas, and most recently original music for a live puppet show and a short film. The commissioned solo piano piece “Ocean Voices” premiered at Roy Barnett Hall at the University of British Columbia for the planetary healing conference in 2014. Her folk-pop song "We Are Infinite" which featured her own young students with original choreography, has become one of the most popular videos on her YouTube Channel. She has also become known for her re-compositions of classical music, most recently recomposed sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart as well as original cadenzas to Beethoven concertos. Most recently, she collaborated with a well-known puppeteer and actress Charlotte Anne Dore on her live show "Ghosts from Christmas Past”, where she composed the original soundtrack. Around the same time, she was commissioned to write original music for a short modern dance film, Baby Dance. In addition to performing her original works, she teaches improvisation and composition where her students improvise and perform their original works at SMG recitals. The students are encouraged to compose freely in a wide range from piano pieces to electronic music, original songs, duets, and concerti to performance art. Her composition students along with her piano students have won top prizes in local and national competitions.
Her lifelong love of singing and Jazz became a reality with the fateful encounter with the power couple in Jazz; Panayota Haloulakou ( Jazz voice) and Lefteris Kordis ( Jazz piano). Through her study with this world-class husband-wife team, she realized her dream of becoming a Jazz vocalist. With the help of this dream team, Sarah has been able to launch her second career in Jazz, where she has performed with some of the top Jazz musicians in Boston at such well-known venues as the Lilypad, Wally’s Cafe, Ryles, Bebop as part of the Arlington Jazz Festival. Outside of Boston, she has performed in Jazz clubs in Tokyo and New Orleans, and in a live jam session at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. Most recently, she became a resident artist at Jungle Music Club, where she performs every month with her band, Sarah Infini Situation Jazz quartet. In 2018, upon invitation by top Jazz musician and entrepreneur, Dan Fox, Sarah joined the voice and songwriting faculty at the Morningside Music Studios located in Arlington, MA. She is currently in a residency at the upscale restaurant in Belmont center, MA The Wellington Restaurant & Bar, where she performs weekly for their Sunday Brunch ( 12-2 pm) with her Infini Jazz Trio.
In addition to realizing her dream of becoming a vocalist, she has also realized her dream of performing as a dancer. Dance was also her “other” passion, wherewith her first Jazz dance class at age 12, she was smitten. In high school, she was selected to be part of an elite group of a singer-dancer group called ‘Showstoppers” where she became part of the official video produced by the Hal Leonard company. After this experience, she had an opportunity to pursue a career in show choir at Walt Disney World, which sadly, was turned down by her strict Japanese parents. Thus, as her creative performance began to develop beyond the piano, Sarah began to “unveil” her other talents; and with the improvised dance with the rock band Egg Queen, she made her debut as a dancer at Somerville Cable Television (SCAT). In the summer of 2018, she was invited to perform as a dancer for the Kelley Donovan modern dance company where she performed as part of the Onstage Summer Performance Series in Malden, MA. And shortly after, she performed as one of the 4 dancers (fire) for the Japan Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Memorial event presented by the Actors Refuge Repertory Theater. In addition to being a dancer, she has also produced many shows where she has choreographed for musical pieces in her show including the Haydn sonata ( with Kelli Edwards in Jordan hall), “We Are Infinite” song involving 6 of her own students; and most recently conceived and collaborated on an original choreography with 4 composer-creator students at NEC for the first movement of the Beethoven sonata Op. 2 #1 at her faculty recital this past fall.
Finally, her spontaneous, improvisatory joyful spirit found a niche in another expression: clowning and comedy. As a pianist, Sarah’s greatest hero was the pianist and comedian Victor Borge. Even as she began incorporating Borge-influenced comedy in her performances, her close collaboration with an internationally touring clown, Marty Levin, allowed her playfulness to be recognized as another gift; clowning. As a result of this discovery, Marty and Sarah worked together to create a successful sketch based on their first improvisatory performance leading to an encore performance at the conservatory. Since then, Sarah continued to pursue her love of improv comedy by enrolling as a student at Improv Boston in Cambridge, MA. Most recently, her comedy has developed beyond improv to stand-up, where she has been blessed with an auspicious start at her first-ever stand-up; winning the only award given that night out of 50 comedians at Sally O’Brien’s open mic Mondays. Since then, she has been performing at local comedy clubs as a stand-up comedian becoming a resident host for her show “Jokes at Jungle” at Jungle Community Club. She has been seen performing all over New England as a comedian in a variety of shows including “Last In Line” comedy series, “Comics Who Showered”, Sake & Sushi, Eastie Farm show, Tickle Me Tuesdays, Harvard General Store Comedy Night, and most recently at the first Filipino-American Festival at the annual Harvard Square Fall Festival. Most recently, she produced and performed in her own monthly comedy show series at the Common Ground in Burlington Mall.
Finally, in December 2021, Sarah made her debut as a professional actress as a principal cast member of the ongoing live theater show Dinner Detective@Boston which is part of a national theater company. Prior to joining Dinner Detective, she was an 8-year member of Energy Theater, a unique theatrical group presenting a variety of shows of comedy, dance, music, and original sketches. Since then, she was recruited to play the part of the psychiatrist in an Australian TV commercial. She has also participated in the 72-hour Shoot Out short film production which has since been nominated as one of the top 50 short film submissions for 2023 at the Asian American International Film Festival. Most recently, she was cast as the lead supporting actress for a short film “She Sees Ghosts” which is planned for a premiere at the Paramount Theater May 2024. Most recently, she has been cast as lead role “Yaai” in the short film “Culture Shock” as part of Emerson film department production to be premiered in January 2024.
