Uichi Kajiyama is the Percussion Coordinator for Aimachi, the 9-Time Prime Minister Award winner of Nagoya Japan. Aimachi has received worldwide recognition and has won many prestigious awards. Aside from his responsibilities with Aimachi, Uichi teaches at the Nagoya College of Music and is Assistant Conductor for the Aichi Institute of Technology Meiden High School Band. Meiden maintains one of the finest high school music programs found anywhere in the world.
Uichi started his music career with the Aimachi Band in Japan in 1986. The director and a founder of the Aimachi band, Mr. Kiyokazu Sekine, taught Uichi teaching skills and show design concepts. In 1993, he further pursued his musical studies at Concordia University in Chicago, USA. Subsequently, he received a Bachelor Degree in Music in Percussion from Concordia University. While at the University, he studied orchestra, jazz, wind band, and a wide variety of music subjects under Mr. Edward Harrison, Principal Percussionist with the Chicago Lyric Opera. Mr. Kajiyama studied conducting under Dr.Richard Fisher, and was a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Illinois State Honor University band.
In 1993, Mr. Kajiyama joined The Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps and worked with percussion specialists such as Prof. James Campbell, Bret Kuhn, and Erik Johnson. In 1995, he won the Drum Corps International (DCI) Individual & Ensemble Contest in the Mallet Keyboard Division. The Cavaliers won the DCI World Championship in that same year. In 1997, he was the Percussion Arranger and Instructor for The Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps, and was Percussion Instructor for The Cavaliers the following year. Uichi learned brass pedagogy and technique under Gordon Henderson and Martin Rhees. He also studied show and drill design under Mitch Rogers and Michael Gaines. Jeff Fiedler, former director for The Cavaliers and Santa Clara Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps, was his mentor in how to make an organization operate at the highest level.
In 2002, Mr. Kajiyama started teaching at Meiden High School as a conductor and marching instructor. Since then, Meiden High School has received the Gold Prize at the All Japan Marching contest 4 times. The founder of Meiden's Symphonic band, Ikuo Matsui, appointed Mr.Kajiyama to conduct the band upon his retirement in 2004. Since then, he has directed the band with their main conductor, Hiroki Ito, one of the greatest music educators and conductors in Japan.
Mr. Kajiyama has traveled the world to teach music and judge contests. His engagements have taken him to such places as the United States, Europe, China, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore. He is a certified adjudicator in the USA, Japan, and Thailand, and is also an official advisor for the All Japan Marching Band Association. Mr. Kajiyama was also a guest conductor for World in Concert in Singapore in 2008.