biography
Pianist Mika Sasaki is a sought-after recitalist, chamber musician, and educator whose performances and teaching have taken her to the U.K., Italy, Japan, Switzerland, and throughout the U.S. Since her concerto debut with the Sinfonia of Cambridge (U.K.) at age seven, she has appeared as soloist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and most recently, performed Amy Beach's Piano Concerto with the InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York. She has performed at Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Peter J. Sharp Theater, Palazzo Chigi Saracini (Italy), Minatomirai Hall (Japan), Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Japan), Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and live on WQXR and WFMT radio. Her solo debut album, Obsidian: Mika Sasaki plays Clara Schumann, released on Yarlung Records in 2016, was highly acclaimed by the Online Merker as “illuminat[ing] the artistic inspiration and creative exchange between these three Romantic souls,” Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, and was recently featured on Radio Sweden.
A versatile pianist praised for her musicianship, Dr. Sasaki has been invited to festivals and concert series such as Music@Menlo, pianoSonoma, Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Italy), Taos, Icicle Creek, Yellow Barn, Mannes Beethoven Institute, Aspen, Estherwood (U.K.), the Metropolis Ensemble “5 Nights, 11 Pianists,” the Focus! Festival at Lincoln Center, and the Charles Ives Concert Series. In 2014, she was a Leonard Bernstein Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where her interpretation of Schubert’s Grand Duo for four hands was hailed as a “colorful reading of the work … [with] nuance and sensitivity to Schubert’s music.” In recent summers, she has taught and performed as Artist Faculty at the Rushmore Music Festival in South Dakota, the Danbury Music Centre Chamber Music Intensive in Connecticut, and the Nord Anglia Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard in Geneva, Switzerland.
A passionate educator and performer dedicated to reach a variety of audiences and students, Dr. Sasaki is the pianist of Ensemble Mélange, a sextet that uniquely invites audience members to choose musical selections form a “menu” of more than two dozen vocal and instrumental works of various styles, from Baroque, Classical, Romantic, original commissions, to Broadway staples. During the 2016-2018 seasons, she performed regularly at Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and in public schools and various community venues around New York City as a pianist of Ensemble Connect, a prestigious fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, and the Weill Institute in partnership with the NYC Department of Education.
Born in Atlanta, Dr. Sasaki grew up in Demarest, New Jersey, and began her studies with Olegna Fuschi at the Juilliard Pre-College at the age of seven. After moving to Tokyo, Japan, in 2001 with her family, she returned to the U.S. to pursue her B.M. and M.M. degrees at the Peabody Conservatory, where she won several honorary awards in piano and chamber music. She recently completed her D.M.A. degree as a C. V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at the Juilliard School, where she was the recipient of the Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship as a graduate who demonstrated outstanding artistry and achievement in leadership, entrepreneurship, and breadth of engagement.
Currently based in New York City, Dr. Sasaki is a faculty member at Juilliard, where she teaches piano and keyboard skills in the Evening Division, and Piano Topics and keyboard skills for pianists in the College Division.
Last updated: March 2019
Photo by Arthur Moeller
Juilliard faculty bio
日本語はこちら (Japanese bio)
Pianist Mika Sasaki is a sought-after recitalist, chamber musician, and educator whose performances and teaching have taken her to the U.K., Italy, Japan, Switzerland, and throughout the U.S. Since her concerto debut with the Sinfonia of Cambridge (U.K.) at age seven, she has appeared as soloist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and most recently, performed Amy Beach's Piano Concerto with the InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York. She has performed at Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Peter J. Sharp Theater, Palazzo Chigi Saracini (Italy), Minatomirai Hall (Japan), Tokyo Bunka Kaikan (Japan), Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and live on WQXR and WFMT radio. Her solo debut album, Obsidian: Mika Sasaki plays Clara Schumann, released on Yarlung Records in 2016, was highly acclaimed by the Online Merker as “illuminat[ing] the artistic inspiration and creative exchange between these three Romantic souls,” Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, and was recently featured on Radio Sweden.
A versatile pianist praised for her musicianship, Dr. Sasaki has been invited to festivals and concert series such as Music@Menlo, pianoSonoma, Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Italy), Taos, Icicle Creek, Yellow Barn, Mannes Beethoven Institute, Aspen, Estherwood (U.K.), the Metropolis Ensemble “5 Nights, 11 Pianists,” the Focus! Festival at Lincoln Center, and the Charles Ives Concert Series. In 2014, she was a Leonard Bernstein Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where her interpretation of Schubert’s Grand Duo for four hands was hailed as a “colorful reading of the work … [with] nuance and sensitivity to Schubert’s music.” In recent summers, she has taught and performed as Artist Faculty at the Rushmore Music Festival in South Dakota, the Danbury Music Centre Chamber Music Intensive in Connecticut, and the Nord Anglia Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard in Geneva, Switzerland.
A passionate educator and performer dedicated to reach a variety of audiences and students, Dr. Sasaki is the pianist of Ensemble Mélange, a sextet that uniquely invites audience members to choose musical selections form a “menu” of more than two dozen vocal and instrumental works of various styles, from Baroque, Classical, Romantic, original commissions, to Broadway staples. During the 2016-2018 seasons, she performed regularly at Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and in public schools and various community venues around New York City as a pianist of Ensemble Connect, a prestigious fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, and the Weill Institute in partnership with the NYC Department of Education.
Born in Atlanta, Dr. Sasaki grew up in Demarest, New Jersey, and began her studies with Olegna Fuschi at the Juilliard Pre-College at the age of seven. After moving to Tokyo, Japan, in 2001 with her family, she returned to the U.S. to pursue her B.M. and M.M. degrees at the Peabody Conservatory, where she won several honorary awards in piano and chamber music. She recently completed her D.M.A. degree as a C. V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at the Juilliard School, where she was the recipient of the Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship as a graduate who demonstrated outstanding artistry and achievement in leadership, entrepreneurship, and breadth of engagement.
Currently based in New York City, Dr. Sasaki is a faculty member at Juilliard, where she teaches piano and keyboard skills in the Evening Division, and Piano Topics and keyboard skills for pianists in the College Division.
Last updated: March 2019
Photo by Arthur Moeller
Juilliard faculty bio
日本語はこちら (Japanese bio)