Naomi Furihata
Patron of TMT
Naomi’s international and diverse career as arts administrator and event producer spans 40
years. Born in Tokyo, she trained as a pianist and immersed herself in the arts industry
through her love of music.
Introduced to music from a very young age, she started her piano and violin studies in
Bruxelles, accepted into Jenny Solheid’s studio at age 4 and enrolled to the Conservatoire
Royal de Bruxelles as the youngest student. Her training continued in the United States and
Japan. She is the recipient of the Van Cliburn Piano Award from the Interlochen Centre of
the Arts, scholarship recipient from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and
Dance and of the Sigma Alpha Iota Award from the SAI international music fraternity.
Discovering arts administration through an encounter with the renowned student led jazz
events organisation Eclipse Jazz in the US led her to promote artists such as the World
Saxophone Quartet, the Miles Davis (‘Tutu Tour’) and other legendary jazz greats while she
was a student.
She soon embarked on a career working for the arts with emphasis on charity and cultural
exchange events in Japan, including the UNICEF World Philharmonic Orchestra chaired by
the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Audrey Hepburn. Other projects included the tour
of Japan and Hong Kong for the Live Under the Sky Music Festival and the Mt Fuji/Blue Note
Jazz Festival.
Her experiences took her to London to work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and
projects included a tour of Japan with Aled Jones and the Vienna Boys’ Choir and further
cultural exchange programmes which included the Japanese Dance and Drum Troupe,
Kikuno-kai. Her debut as producer in the UK was promoting sitar virtuoso and composer
Ravi Shankar’s UK tour with the Asian Music Circuit to a sold out audience at the Royal
Festival Hall.
She headed the artist management department for London Musicians Ltd and represented
numerous conductors, composers, arrangers and orchestrators and, included orchestra
management mainly for Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s productions in
London’s West End.
Highlights in her career have included the Tokyo Olympics, the Royal Variety Shows, All the
Queen’s Horses at Windsor and the Golden Jubilee Celebrations for Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II, Ian Fleming Centenary at the London Palladium for the British Heart Foundation
UK, Elizabeth Taylor Celebrations at the Royal Albert Hall for the Red Hot AIDS Charitable
Trust and Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Richard Rogers Centenary at the London
Palladium for Nerve Tumours UK, and the 1 st Laureus World Sports Award Ceremony in Nice
with Nelson Mandela, Patron.
Advocating to give young people the opportunity to perform and promoting the benefits of
the arts to build their confidence has been an integral part of her career. While she was the
head of the vocal department for the Marlow Festival of Music & Drama and appointed as
the Co-Chair of the Festival, she supported hundreds of young performers. Her relationship
with the National Youth Music Theatre spans nearly three decades. First as tour manager
overseeing tours to SE Asia and New York and as event manager co-ordinating the 20 th
Anniversary Gala at the Palace Theatre and the 40 th Anniversary Gala at the Adelphi Theatre.
She was appointed trustee of NYMT in 2023.
Naomi resides in the UK, married to Joseph Atkins, trumpet player in the BBC Symphony
Orchestra and they have two children.