Album Release Concert: Goodbye, Strawberry Hill

Goodbye, Strawberry Hill: Album release concert of music composed and performed by Sharon Minemoto, piano, featuring
Jon Bentley, tenor saxophone | Darren Radtke, bass | Bernie Arai, drums

Saturday, May 2, 2026
7:30 pm, doors at 6:30 pm
Anvil Theatre 777 Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC
Advance Tickets

Album Launch Concert

Announcing a special concert celebrating the launch of Sharon Minemoto’s new album, Goodbye, Strawberry Hill (Cellar Music). This concert features songs telling her family’s stories, joyful and sad, from WWII to present day.

In 1942, Sharon Minemoto’s mother’s family’s 10-acre strawberry farm in Strawberry Hill, (Surrey-Delta) was confiscated by the government and her family then interned in Slocan, BC.

Towards the end of the war, when Japanese Canadians were given two stark choices – move east of the Rockies or “repatriate” to Japan – Sharon’s maternal grandparents made the difficult decision to take four of their six Canadian-born children by boat to Japan. As Canadians, they would face years of hardship and discrimination in Japan before choosing to return to Canada.

Sharon’s father’s mother had taken her children to meet their grandmother in Japan when the war broke out. Without a home, income or father, the family was stranded near Hiroshima when the US atomic bomb was dropped. With his family stuck in Japan, her grandfather was interned in a camp in Moose Jaw, where he died.

With the support of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society, Sharon composed nine works for her quartet, each inspired by and reflecting her family’s experience during WWII. These were recorded at Monarch Studios in October 2025 for release on the Cellar Music record label in 2026.

This concert is a co-production of the Anvil Theatre and the Vancouver Independent Music Centre.

Sharon Minemoto

Since the age of 16, pianist/composer Sharon Minemoto has been performing for audiences around the world and for CBC Radio broadcasts. She is leader of a trio, quartet and quintet. Her quartet toured across Canada promoting its 2018 recording, Safe Travels and in August 2023, released its second album, Dark Night, Bright Stars.

Sharon has performed with Cory Weeds, Brad Turner, Jill Townsend, Oliver Gannon, Neil Swainson, Dee Daniels, Denzal Sinclaire, James Danderfer, Laura Crema, Mike Allen, the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Musica Intima Vocal Ensemble, as well as internationally known artists Seamus Blake and Jeremy Pelt.
https://sharonminemoto.com