Women’s Jazz Festival: Hana Fujisaki & Cassandra O’Neal
Schedule
Wed, 07 Jan, 2026 at 07:30 pm
UTC-06:00Location
HeyNonnyAH | Arlington Heights, IL
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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2026DOORS: 6:30PM
SHOW: 7:30PM
About Hana Fujisaki:
Hana Fujisaki is a Chicago-based keyboardist, composer, and music educator. She began her musical journey studying organ and contemporary music at Yamaha Music School in Japan, where she won multiple awards as an organist and composer. She moved to the U.S. to study jazz and Latin music under Pat Coil, Jim Trompeter, and Jeremy Kahn, ultimately earning her M.M. from Northwestern University.
Fujisaki masterfully shifts between disparate musical settings, playing hymns on the pipe-organ in the morning before rocking out on Key-tar at night. Her musical versatility is showcased by the variety of musical projects and theater productions she collaborates with including Chicago Samba, The Fly Honey Show, CoryaYo, Brandon James, Vox Maris, Da$htone, The Phunk Nasty's, Los Perros Cubanos, Rojo Tango, Hitched, and ORiHANA. In addition to her regular appearances in some of Chicago's most prestigious musical venues, she has also toured and performed all over the U.S. In 2024, she participated in Asia tour with the jazz quartet Entre Amigos, traveling 8 different cities in Asia featured in several venues including Blue Note Shanghai. Entre Amigos have released two albums titled "Entre Amigos" in 2024 and "Magpie - The Music of Joe Clark" in 2025. Fujisaki is also a passionate music educator who currently directs a choir and teaches piano and music theory classes at Harold Washington College.
About Cassandra O'Neal:
Cassandra O'Neal is an American musician, composer, and recording artist. Best known as keyboard player (2009–2016) with Prince and The New Power Generation, she has an impressive resume of work with major industry (gospel, pop and funk) artists for over twenty-five (25) years.
Cassandra O’Neal started playing piano at the age of three. Throughout her adolescence, she followed a classical piano training, and played in her father’s church. During her junior and senior high school years she accompanied school choruses and ensembles.
After moving to Los Angeles, California in 1991 she started her musical career touring with American Gospel singer, Daryl Coley. When she was a staff musician at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, she released a gospel instructional DVD “Wheatworks Productions Presents…West Coast Piano: The Ultimate Gospel Piano Master Class Featuring Cassandra O’Neal”.
After leaving Prince’s band, Cassandra became a teacher at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York.
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Where is it happening?
HeyNonnyAH, 10 S. Vail Ave.,Arlington Heights, Illinois, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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