Yoko Kanno

is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer of soundtracks for anime series, video games, television dramas and movies. She has written scores for Cowboy Bebop, Terror in Resonance, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf’s Rain, Turn A Gundam and Darker than Black. Kanno is a keyboardist and the frontwoman for Seatbelts, who perform many of her compositions. Early life Yoko Kanno was born on 18 March 1963, in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Her earliest experiences with music came from attending church with her parents. She studied keyboard on both the piano in her home and the organ at her kindergarten. In elementary school, she began participating in composition contests, but in high school, Kanno began to take more of an interest in literature than in music. Kanno attended Waseda University, where she majored in literature, but she transcribed music for various student groups at Waseda in her free time. During this time, Kanno—whose parents had allowed her to listen only to classical music—was introduced to rhythm by a friend who played drums in a school band. She attended Otakon and Anime Expo in 1999, as well as Anime Expo New York in 2002. In 2010, she made a