An award-winning Tsugaru Shamisen (Japanese fretless three-stringed lute) performer and composer based in Los Angeles, Mike Penny has been composing for and performing shamisen across the U.S. and Japan since 2004. Mike studied in Santa Cruz, CA with Kevin Kmetz, and he later received the Japan Foundation’s Uchida Fellowship which allowed him to study in Tokyo with the respected Tsugaru shamisen sensei Fukushi Toyoaki in 2007-2008. Through his many performances and viral video performances on YouTube, he has gained a following for his unprecedented style of shamisen playing which combines traditional and extended techniques in a variety of musical contexts including jazz, Balkan folk, Western classical, and popular music. With an in-depth knowledge of not only traditional Japanese folk music, but Western music as well, Mike is active as a studio musician, contributing his shamisen stylings to projects such as PlayStation’s Ghost of Tsushima, Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai, Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, and more.