Patrick Shiroishi

Patrick Shiroishi is a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist, composer & poet based in Los Angeles who is perhaps best known for his extensive & incredibly intense work with the saxophone. Over the last decade he has established himself as one of the premier improvising musicians in Los Angeles, playing solo and in numerous collaborative projects. He has presented work and performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum, the Broad Museum, commissioned by the LA Philharmonic and has toured around the world in various solo and band configurations including The Armed & contemporary classical ensemble Wild Up. He has a poem included in a collection of Japanese American poets Gate of Memory published by Haymarket Books.

Updated April 2025

Stories from This Author

Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column

Diminishing for No One…

April 17, 2025 • Patrick Shiroishi , traci kato-kiriyama

This month’s theme is derived directly from the first poem here from Patrick Shiroishi, a dynamic multidisciplinary artist and musician based here in Los Angeles—who I had the privilege of meeting at our recent celebration of The Gate of Memory anthology (eds. Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda). Patrick and his work, memories and ancestors are “diminishing for no one” and his poetry here carries us through the ways we remember, make declarations of being in this continuum, and dare to …