From Japan to Juilliard

Via New Orleans, a feel-good Katrina story.

Mr. Ohashi's trip began with his evacuation the day before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, but the odyssey really started in his native Japan. While studying Japanese literature at Hosei University in the early 1990's, he took up jazz seriously and blossomed, playing in a semiprofessional student orchestra with some success. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1997 to 2001, and took himself to New Orleans to practice his craft.