Director and Manager
We worked at the Boston Higashi School (BHS) in Massachusetts, USA, which is a specialized school for children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), for long years. We left the school last Spring and moved back to Japan in summer, 2023. We started this music program at the beginning of September last year.
In Boston, both of us were involved in the Continuing Adult Education Program (CAEP) that was launched in 2015 for the BHS alumni. We worked closely with adults with ASD, parents, and caretakers as an instructor and a management staff. We would like to help individuals with ASD enhance their Quality of Life (QOL) by utilizing our experiences and skills acquired in the US in our new and exciting adventure, “Music for Everyone” in Fukuoka, Japan.
We are looking forward to meeting with YOU in our music program!
The Director of this program, Kaname Ueno, graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music and Bachelor of Arts in Music Education (Saxophone Major). He worked at the Musashino Higashi Gakuen in Tokyo, Japan for a few years and was relocated to the BHS as a music teacher in 1988. Since then, he had taught music to hundreds of students with ASD. He founded the Higashi Jazz Band in 1989 and served as the Director of the jazz band for 34 years. He instructed each one of the band members enthusiastically and provided them of many opportunities of showcase.
The Manager of this program, Yumiko Mori, was enrolled in a graduate school located in the suburb of Boston in 1999. She started to work at the BHS after obtaining the degree of the Master of Science in 2002. She served as an IEP (Individualized Education Program) Coordinator and Cross-Cultural Program Coordinator. Then, she was assigned to the Research Department as an Educational Program Evaluator. She resigned from BHS in April 2023 and currently serves BHS as a Board of Director. She also spends her time to translate books related to ASD into Japanese from English and has published eight books until now.
* Performances of Kaname with the Higashi Jazz Band in the Past
If you would like to take a peak at the performances of Kaname with the Boston Higashi Jazz Band in the past, please search them in major search engines (e.g., Google, Safari) or YouTube with the word, "Boston Higashi Jazz Band."
You can also find their performances and success stories at the official website and Facebook of the Boston Higashi School.