The Fiddling Leona Band with JP at The Prizery

Fiddling Leona is a International TV personality (NETFLIX), performer, vocalist, classical violinist, food truck owner, and fiddler from Tokyo, Japan, and currently living in the Appalachian mountains of East Tennessee. She is a performer as well as a fiddle and violin instructor. In 2006, Leona enrolled in college in the United States. Leona was the first international student to receive credentials in Bluegrass and Country Music in 2009. Leona has performed all across the United States and Japan as a featured artist. During 2009 and 2010 Leona was invited to perform as a part of the American Bluegrass Master’s Tour. The artists featured in this tour were Grand Ole Opry star Bobby Osborne, the Lonesome River Band, J.D. Crowe, and many others. During this time Leona was featured in rare bluegrass tours of both Alaska and Hawaii. In 2006 Leona performed as a guest at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, where she represented her country of Japan along with famed Japanese shamisen player, actor, and storyteller Takeharu Kunimoto. Leona has released three featured solo albums. Her first debut album was entitled “A New Peace Within” and her second all original album is entitled “Love & Peace, Leona”, and finally her latest album is entitled "On My Own". all of her albums were released both in the United States and Japan where they received national airplay on the radio and Leona released these albums with tours of her native Japan. Fiddling Leona has now found a new home in the entertainment industry at NETFLIX. Leona is a featured cast member on the new International Netflix original series “Swap Shop”. The show features Leona as she searches for antique Americana items in the mountains of East Tennessee that she can flip for profit the next time she goes back to Tokyo. The show also features the people, landscape, and culture of her current home in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee. The show is available world-wide only on Netflix. When asked what she envisions for the future Leona said, “ I want to take my experiences of performing and living in the U.S. and share them with the people of Japan and Asia. Because I know from experience that all across Japan there are people who love country music, and I want to help increase the awareness of this unique American art form. If the younger generation in Japan or Asia can see someone like me performing American country music, I believe it would expand the interest in country, bluegrass, and American roots music more beyond its current status.”