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Kumi Masunaga-增永紅實

Internationally renowned Japanese percussionist and joy-affirming performer, Kumi Masunaga is a REMO artist and the Founder of Drum Jam, a drumming company based in Hong Kong.  With her vibrant music and zest, Kumi has travelled from Africa to the Americas to Asia, learning rhythms to ignite her team-building and community empowerment programs. She has shared the stage with the world’s change-makers such as Jane Goodall and David Beckham and performed at numerous events worldwide. 

Tens of thousands of people have drummed with Kumi in her drum circles, team-building sessions, classrooms, festivals, and wellness retreats since she founded Drum Jam in Hong Kong over twenty years ago.  She is trained in the evidence-based HealthRHYTHMS and is a certified Music Medicine  facilitator and Village Music Circles global trainer. During the COVID pandemic, she conducted online drum programs internationally. 

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​Kumi has been someone I look up to since I first met her in 2022 in her drum jam event. You can feel her energy, passion and presence when you are with her, no matter in a private chat or her drum jam session. I would love to become a person like her!

We talked about her earlier years, how she learned music, how she connect music and visual images, her New York experiences where she incidentally got to see a live James Brown private gig, her decision to take care of grandma full time for 2 years when she was in her early twenties, why and how she move to Hong Kong, her years in the Lamma Island, her African drumming journey, how malaria almost costed her life, and the reason she is what is doing for the society.

Hope you will enjoy the show.

You can find Kumi @ Instagram