FEATURED EVENT

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

KIMURA Yoko Reikano

Yoko Reikano Kimura,koto and shamisen, has concertized in over 20 countries around the world including prestigious venues such as the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Israel Festival, Vilnius Festival, and The University of Cambridge.In Japan, Kimura has performed at the Kabuki-zafor the play, Sukeroku starring Danjuro Ichikawa XII, and has also appeared invenues including National Theatre, National Noh Theatre, and several UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Since Kimura moved to the US in 2010, her performances has been featured at renowned venues such as John F. Kennedy Center, Smithsonian National Museum, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Madison Square Garden. Her performances have been broadcasted on NPR’s Performance Today, NHK-FM’s Hogaku no Hitotokiand Nippon TV’sThe MUSIC DAY. Her playing and singing has hailed as “superb” by The New York Times.

Kimura founded Duo YUMENO with cellist Hikaru Tamaki. The highlights of the duo’s performances include its 10th Anniversary Recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and its new album,Heike Quintowas released from NAXOS in 2024. As a koto soloist, Kimurahas been an ardent champion of Koto Concerto: Genjiby Daron Hagen for over a decade.

Since 1992, Kimurahas studied with Kono Kameyama, the preeminent disciples of the legendary Yamada-school koto performer, Kin’ichi Nakanoshima.Kimura also studied with Senko Yamabiko, Living National Treasure, and Akiko Nishigata. Kimura graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, and was a faculty member at Senzoku Gakuen College ofMusic. Her awards include the First prize at the prestigious 10th Kenjun Memorial National Koto Competition and a scholarship from the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan. Since2015, Kimura has presented her concert series, Four Seasons in New York-Gems of Japanese Music.

TAMAKI Hikaru

Hikaru Tamaki concertizes regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in the US and Japan. He served as the principal cellist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and was a member of the Freimann String Quartet from 2001 until 2013. Solo performances with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic have included numerous major concertos in the cello repertoire. Tamaki was a prizewinner in the prestigious All Japan Viva Hall Cello Competition in 2000. During his annual visits to Japan, he has given solo performances, lecture concerts and chamber concerts. He was a member of the Arcadia Piano Trio and performed together with them at various venues in Japan and the U.S., including the United Nations. He has given a lecture concert at Gakushuin Women’s College in Tokyo, and his activities have been featured in the media such as the Yomiuri and Kyoto Shimbun newspapers. In 2008, he released his first solo album, which includes the works of J.S. Bach and Toshiro Mayuzumi. From 2016, he has served as the principal cellist of the Berkshire Opera Festival and is also a member of the Albany Symphony Orchestra and the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Town Hall and Fisher Performing Arts Center. He also performs regularly with Yoko Reikano Kimura (koto/shamisen) under the moniker Duo YUMENO, and they were awarded the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program grant in 2014, and received the Aoyama Music Award in the following year. Born in Kyoto, Tamaki’s studies in Japan were with Noboru Kamimura and Peter Seidenberg. Studies in the United States began at the Eastman School of Music, where he was named a George Eastman Scholar, and continued at Rice University and Northwestern University for his graduate degree. His teachers were Paul Katz and Hans Jorgen Jensen.

TOKUNAGA Keiko

Keiko Tokunaga is a GRAMMY Award-winning violinist known for her “exceptional technical execution and graceful mastery” (Boston Intelligencer). She performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, with appearances alongside the Spanish National Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony, Orchestrada Tokyo, and Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra.

Keiko is the founder and artistic director of INTERWOVEN, an intercultural ensemble dedicated to blending traditional Asian and Western classical music. The ensemble has appeared at venues including the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Roulette Brooklyn, and Vancouver Civic Centre Annex. In 2023, INTERWOVEN received major support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Canada Council for the Arts for its community-centered project, FantAsia!.

From 2005 to 2019, Keiko was a member of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet, with whom she earned the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Other honors with the quartet include First Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the ABC Classic FM Listener’s Choice Award at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.

A past winner of the Osaka Competition, Keiko was selected to lead national concert tours of Japan in 2020 and 2021, presented by the Japan Chamber Music Foundation.