Archive for Implicit Racial Bias

The Case of Keiko Yamada, Larry Clark, Carl Fischer Music and AI

04/28/2025 / / Comments Off on The Case of Keiko Yamada, Larry Clark, Carl Fischer Music and AI

With the rollback of DEI efforts by the Trump administration, I thought it would be timely to revisit the case of Keiko Yamada, a.k.a. Larry Clark, which attracted attention among music educators back in 2019. Using AI as my assistant, I gathered information online and came away with a different perspective this time, surprising even myself: perhaps Carl Fischer Music could have continued to distribute the compositions under Mr. Clark’s name.

Background

The best resource I found online is the interview by Dr. Jennifer Jolley published in New Music USA.1 For over a decade from around 2004 to 2016, Mr. Clark, a white male composer then working for Carl Fischer Music, used the pseudonym Keiko Yamada—a Japanese woman’s name—to create Japonesque musical works, often using Japanese traditional folk songs and children’s songs as motifs.

The backlash seems to have started on social media, leading to a quick “cancellation” of Mr. Clark. Mr. Clark went on to found Excelcia Music Publishing and Keiko Yamada disappeared along with “her” works. The role of Carl Fischer Music was never discussed, although the interview article made it clear that they were fully aware of Mr. Clark’s pseudonym.

This incident could have led to a deeper discussion —about fake identity, “cancelling” works, the responsibility of the organization (Carl Fischer Music) vs. an individual, the changing times, importance of having a dialogue, etc. But it never did.

AI leads to a different perspective

It so happened that I was testing Manus AI and, on a whim, I asked it to look for remaining traces of composer Keiko Yamada online. After several prompts and corrections, Manus quickly found over 20 works and numerous performance videos, organizing them into a list. (For the purposes of this article, I only listed 20, but there are more.) As I fact-checked Manus’ work, I couldn’t help but notice the joy and enthusiasm of the teachers and students. For example, take a listen to what this teacher has to say about “Amadare”:

Mr. Clark often used existing Japanese folks songs as motifs, so the pieces became conduits for young students to be exposed to snippets of a different culture. Keiko Yamada’s scores travelled around the world, even to Japan. The comments under some of the YouTube video, especially for the piece “Japanese Lullaby”, underscore the effects of these compositions on the students. The performances are lovely.

Today, with changing demographics and without the instant binary right/wrong verdict of social media, perhaps we can revisit Carl Fischer Music’s actions. Even back in 2019, I was never of the opinion that these works should be taken down without adequate explanation from Carl Fischer Music. Would the outcome have been different had Mr. Clark published the works under his own name, as being “inspired by” or “based on” Japanese folk songs? Was that possible within the existing structure of music education publishing at that time? Or, was the bizarre Japanese pseudonym and gender switch necessities? Would Carl Fischer have accepted a similar submission from a Japanese or Japanese- (hyphenated) composer/arranger?

Music can be an entry point into learning about all aspects of life. We should not turn our eyes away from what makes us uncomfortable. We can talk about what it means to be inclusive today, why it’s okay for a non-Japanese composer to arrange Japanese works but not okay for someone to pose as a member of another heritage. Also that what is acceptable may change over time. The U.S. is rapidly moving toward a majority-minority nation. Many cities like New York, L.A., Houston, Chicago, San Jose, are already majority-minority.2 DEI will change with the times. If Mr. Clark’s Japan-inspired works could be reintroduced with proper explanation, allowing the students to think about music (w)holistically, learning from the uncomfortable issues we so often face as we try to exist together in a divided nation, perhaps we can give students an important lesson beyond the notes on the score.

The list

Below is the list Manus compiled of compositions and arrangements by Keiko Yamada (as of April 28, 2025). All works were published by Carl Fischer Music. Following the controversy, many of these compositions were removed from publication or reissued under Larry Clark’s real name, then taken down for the final time. (Note: I am not affiliated with Manus AI or Carl Fischer. Manus AI made many errors but was very clear about the process and saved me a lot of time.)

Compositions in Alphabetical Order

  1. Amadare (Raindrops)
  2. Cho Cho Dances
    • Publisher: Carl Fischer
    • Model/Catalog Number: BAS0030
    • EAN: 798408060855
    • Instrumentation: Orchestra-Strings (String Orchestra)
    • YouTube Performances:
  3. Hiyoko Dances
  4. Hotaka Sunset
  5. Hotaru Koi (Come, Firefly, Come)
    • Publisher: Carl Fischer
    • Publication Year: 2008
    • Model/Catalog Number: BAS0034F
  6. Japanese Hoedown
    • Publisher: Carl Fischer
    • Publication Year: 2012
    • Model/Catalog Number: YAS0112
    • Grade: 2
    • Description: Combines American hoedown with a Japanese-flavored pentatonic melody
    • YouTube Performances:
  7. Japanese Lullaby
  8. Kazoku
    • Publisher: Carl Fischer
  9. Koneko (Kitten)
  10. Kon’nichiwa
    • Publisher: Carl Fischer
    • Grade: 1/2
    • Description: “This piece is ‘hello,’ with a smile on your face. It is meant to be simply delightful for the youngest of string students.”
    • Note: This was one of the pieces specifically mentioned in the controversy about the Keiko Yamada pseudonym
    • YouTube Performances:
  11. Mystic Fawn
  12. Rickshaw
  13. Sakura Sakura
  14. Samurai
  15. Sunayama
  16. Takeda No Komoriuta (Lullaby of Takeda)
  17. Tales of the Kojiki
    • Publisher: Carl Fischer
    • Publication Year: 2008
    • Duration: 3:30
    • Grade: 2
    • Description: A well-written composition in E minor that meets requirements for multicultural repertoire
    • Copyright notice: “This composition is protected by Copyright law. To photocopy or reproduce by any means is a violation of the law.”
    • YouTube Performances:
  18. Tsumasaki
  19. Yuki Matsuri (Japanese Snow Festival)
    • Publisher: Carl Fischer
    • Publication Year: 2014
    • Duration: 2:59
    • Grade: 2
    • Description: Depicts the Japanese Snow Festival
    • YouTube Performances:
  20. Zou-san (Little Elephant)
  1. Jolley, J., Jolley, J., & Jolley, J. (2021, June 2). The curious case of Keiko Yamada. New Music USA – Supporting the Sounds of Tomorrow. We Envision a Thriving, Connected, and Equitable Ecosystem for New Music Across the United States. https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/the-curious-case-of-keiko-yamada/ ↩︎
  2. Frey, W. H. (2021, October 28). 2020 Census: Big cities grew and became more diverse, especially among their youth. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/2020-census-big-cities-grew-and-became-more-diverse-especially-among-their-youth/ ↩︎

Category: Implicit Racial Bias, Racism, Teaching, Writings / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

A Mistake or Implicit Bias?

03/08/2022 / / Comments Off on A Mistake or Implicit Bias?

Recently, I learned of an album review written by a seasoned writer, whom I did not know personally, published on an online platform frequented by music fans. The review itself was wonderful, but there was one error which I noticed. The author, referring to my nonverbal vocal improvisation, wrote that I sometimes sang in Japanese on the recording.

Nowhere on the entire recording do I sing in Japanese. My vocal improvisation used my usual method of combining consonants and vowels in my own way. Perhaps the author decided that I was singing in Japanese because of my ancestry. Perhaps he took a mental shortcut without fact checking. (Many writers already know about my reluctance to use pre-existing language since language can both unify and divide; I’ve mentioned this personally to writers or in interviews or press releases, and have posts about it on my website.)

It took me a while to think about how to deal with this, or if I should deal with it at all. Given all that the world was going through right now, calling attention to a seemingly small error in a music review did not feel appropriate. At the same time, given what many of us go through on a daily basis as we continue to be seen as hyphenated-Americans on a good day, I felt that I should at least attempt to rectify the error, however small.

There were three ways I could approach this. One, do nothing. Two, post the issue on a public forum like Twitter. Three, contact the writer and see if he is open to having a conversation. The first option, I had already abandoned. The second option, I abandoned as well because I didn’t want a public discussion about implicit bias and assumptions based on race. We live in a polarized environment. The author and I represented two races and two genders which could easily be framed in a more explosive narrative. I wanted this to be an opportunity to  explore the why and the how – especially how to prevent these things from happening in the first place. A public social media forum, to me, was not always constructive for nuanced matters.

Fortunately, I was able to find his email address and wrote to him about the error. He emailed back two days later, apologizing and saying that he will rectify the error as soon as he could. Then I emailed him back with an invitation to have a more formal dialogue about what happened, to examine the reasons and see if we could both gain insight from this incident. I did this because we are all human and we all make mistakes. In fact, making mistakes is pretty much the only way we learn, as has been shown in neuroscience research. If every small mistake was blown up in a public forum, what would that do to us? In the fear of making a faux pas, will we stop making mistakes, and thus stop learning? Stop communicating with each other, listening and discussing? I think all these things are already happening. Had I been in the same position as the author, I would have liked for the musician to reach out to me in the way I reached out to the author. I would want to learn, correct my mistake, and use that knowledge to make the world a better place.

For this process to work, we also need to be open to being corrected, because that is one of the most important parts to learning. And it goes without saying that mistakes which create victims… That would call for a serious investigation and all that goes with it.

If the author wants to engage, this story can continue. If not, this post will hopefully provide one direction out of many, in the ways we can deal with bias and assumptions. This incident has already given me an opportunity to put my thoughts into words, and that is a positive thing. As Anthony Braxton repeatedly told me, “Making no mistakes is the biggest mistake of all.” Mistakes are key to learning. Next time we make a mistake, no matter who makes it, let’s take a breath and see what we can learn from it, together, before rushing to condemn it. Because the only way to make the world a better place is to learn to do it together. And if we are not learning, then we are not part of the solution. We become part of the problem.

[Update] The author sent me an email with a thoughtful apology, although he declined to engage in a discussion. I am happy to let this matter drop, and hope that this interaction added something positive however small.

Category: Implicit Racial Bias, Racism, Teaching, Writings /
 
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