Past Alumni Award Recipients

CU Denver is proud to honor Courtney Ozaki '06 with the 2023 College of Arts & Media Distinguished Alumni Award for her success and contributions to Japanese Art in America.

Courtney is an independent creative producer/experiential designer, a Japanese taiki drum musician, and the founder of the Japanese Arts Network, a national resource for artistic collaboration and connection which provides access to resources and develops programs and platforms that support, advance, and strengthen visibility for Japanese Artists in America. She holds a master of fine arts degree in performing arts management from Brooklyn College and a bachelor's in music management from CU Denver’s College of Arts & Media with a dual emphasis in recording arts and music management as well as a partial piano performance degree. 

As a professional taiko musician with close to 30 years of experience, she has performed across the globe, as well as in major cities throughout the United States. In NYC Courtney worked as a project manager and dance producer for Joyce Theater Productions with whom she developed and toured new works by Wendy Whelan and other international artists. She most recently has been working with ADH Theatricals as General Manager for the world premiere of Joshua Frankel and Judd Greenstein’s new opera, A Marvelous Order, and premiered her own original experiential/immersive theater work, ZOTTO: A Japanese Supernatural Folktale at Sakura Square in Denver, CO to sold-out audiences.

Courtney serves on the board of directors for the Western Arts Alliance where she is the co-chair of ‘Hyphen+Asian’, a collective of Asian Pacific Islander community members and allies with a shared interest in advancing API engagement, opportunity, intersectionality, equity, and programming in the performing arts across the West. She is a governor appointed board chair for the SCFD, is on the organizing committee for the Creative Independent Producers’ Alliance, and is the co-chair of the Mountain Region chapter of the U.S. Japan Council. Courtney is passionate about the melding of ideas and the integration and interdependence of arts sectors; she is motivated by the impetus that an inclusive arts culture leads to a more productive and empathetic society.