Originally from Hawai鈥榠, Jason Arimoto, Ph. D., is a Los Angeles-based 鈥榰kulele creative with a professional background in 鈥榰kulele performance, education, and retail. Arimoto performs and teaches across the U.S. and internationally, and is the co-owner of U-SPACE, L.A.鈥檚 premier 鈥榰kulele store and award-winning, full-service community-centered creative arts enterprise. In addition to teaching undergraduate 鈥榰kulele studies in Applied Music at 海角社区, he also served as artist faculty in arts institutions across the country, notably the Centrum Foundation (Washington), the Old Town School of Folk Music (Chicago), and the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Music Center of Los Angeles' Active Arts program. As an 鈥榰kulele products designer, Arimoto developed his original line of PHD Strings 鈥 premium high density 鈥榰kulele performance strings 鈥 designed and optimized for 鈥榰kulele players and endorsed by six-time GRAMMY-award winner, Daniel Ho. Arimoto has performed across the U.S. at the Ford Amphitheatre, Grantmakers in the Arts, the National Association of Music Merchants, and the Bean Blossom Blues Festival (Indiana) as well as internationally at the Cairns Ukulele Festival (Australia) and the Sentosa Ukulele Festival (Singapore). As YouTube creator 鈥渇acemeltingukulele,鈥 Arimoto has produced acclaimed blues 鈥榰kulele covers of Jimi Hendrix鈥檚 鈥淟ittle Wing鈥 and John Mayer鈥檚 鈥淕ravity,鈥 and was featured on Jake Shimabukuro鈥檚 curated YouTube 鈥榰kulele playlist. Arimoto is a Yamaha Music Foundation certified instructor and is the official online 鈥榰kulele advisor for the Musician鈥檚 Creativity Lab and a lead instructor on the popular 鈥榰kulele education forum, Ukulele Underground. Arimoto鈥檚 studio recordings are featured on: A Brighter Day, an album of original 鈥榰kulele and vocal compositions; Take On the 鈥80s, a collection of 鈥80s hits re-imagined on 鈥榰kulele and vocals in the varying styles of blues, reggae, and swing; and JMD, featuring 鈥榰kulele, bass, and drums on six original reggae/blues/rock compositions.
Education: B.S., Ph.D., University of Southern California