MIHO SASAKI    pianist / composer / teacher



                   

NEW RECORDINGS


RYUKI (Earth is Alive) for Orchestra (2012)


Reaching ... (2013) for mixed chamber quartet


Reaching ... (2013)    video



MIHO SASAKI

From Chiba City, Japan, pianist Miho Sasaki came to the United States in 2000 to study English and music at Indiana University. Following additional language studies and collegiate course work in Boston, she continued her music studies in the US, earning an M.M. from Butler University's School of Music in Indianapolis. Ms. Sasaki has studied piano with Hiromi Iwadate (Japan), Eugenio Urrutia-Borlando, Andrew Russo (Juilliard), and music composition with Michael Schelle, Paul Chihara (UCLA), Elliott Schwartz (Maine) and Elvis Costello.

Ms. Sasaki recently returned from a two-week concert tour of China as soloist with the South Shore Orchestra (Chicago) for Michael Schelle’s Wright Flight, a work that is recorded on Albany Records.  Ms. Sasaki has also performed concertos with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, the District 99 Orchestra (Chicago), and the Fort Smith (AR) Symphony Orchestra (2012).


In 2010 Ms. Sasaki was featured guest artist for a recital of new piano music at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music in Nagoya, Japan. Ms. Sasaki’s own original compositions have been performed by the American Pianists Association, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra (NYC), flutist Hiroko Senoo (Tokyo), and featured during the 2009 Finger Lakes Summer Chamber Music Festival in upstate New York. She had recently completed new commissions from the Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra, The Generous Ensemble (Hartford, CT) and the Manhattan Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.


As a teacher Ms. Sasaki maintains a private studio and is on the faculty of the Butler Community Arts School and the innovative university Little Mozart program for young musicians.



        




            MIHO SASAKI with a few of her 2011 Little Mozart students . . . 


              



           E-MAIL:   sasakismiho55@aol.com




               



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         Miho Sasaki and Michael Schelle

                                                                 


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            VOICING THE NEW $135,000 STEINWAYS AT THE NEW $175,000,000
            CARMEL, INDIANA PALLADIUM CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS,
            WHICH OPENED IN JANUARY 2011


              


       

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        RECENT PERFORMANCES

        

            Soloist with the FORT SMITH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA : May 2012 : Ft. Smith, Arkansas

             


             


              Warm-up time, before the orchestra arrives  . . .

             

     

           Becky Yates (FSSO Exec. Director), Michael Schelle, conductor John Jeter, pianist Miho Sasaki

          


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      Soloist with the DISTRICT 99 SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA : April 2012, Chicago, IL

            


            Miho Sasaki with composer Michael Schelle and District 99 Orchestra conductor, Jennifer Mullen

            


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           BLOOMINGTON (Illinois) CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS : April 2011

             


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          CLEVELAND CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: Albuquerque, NM: Albuquerque Youth Orchestra,             Sayra Siverson, conductor.   March 2011

             



             



           


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MIHO SASAKI performing Michael Schelle's WRIGHT FLIGHT piano concerto (2002) : 2 week concert         tour of CHINA (6 cities : 8 concerts - Shanghai, Beijing, Ningbo, Hangzhou, etc.) w/ the South Shore Orchestra (Chicago) January 2010.  

       see many more CHINA pictures on the  NEWS  page


        


            


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            Pianist MIHO SASAKI on the streets of Hollywood, Los Angeles
            after concert performances in Southern California : March 2011


           

               


            MIHO SASAKI with film composer CHRISTOPHER YOUNG  (in Michael Schelle's studio)

              



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       As a concerto program encore, Miho Sasaki often performs

       Praeludium IX  (Bacchanalia)   from Michael Schelle's STRAIGHT, NO LITHIUM (2010)



                          


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               COMPOSITION

               Premiere of Miho Sasaki's  DEATH OR KIKI  (2012)

              

              commissioned and premiered by THE GENEROUS ENSEMBLE
              Hartford, CT : April 2012

                    

                

                 Miho Sasaki speaking with the audience at the premiere performances of her new work,

                 RYUKI (Earth is Alive) : February 2013, Fort Smith (AR) Symphony Orchestra

                

                 LISTEN HERE:

                 Miho Sasaki's RYUKI (Earth is Alive), a 2012 commission from the Fort Smith Symphony


                

                 Miho Sasaki working with FSSO coductor John Jeter


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               TEACHING

              


                           


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         Peace-loving pianist, composer Miho Sasaki is happy to be in the US (since 2000), but was paralyzed
         with sadness and disbelief at the natural disasters taking place in her homeland in March 2011 . . .

                   

                  JAPAN  :  9.1 EARTHQUAKE and TSUNAMI :  11 MARCH 2011

                   MARCH 2011 : BBC ASIA PACIFIC : JAPAN EARTHQUAKE / TSUNAMI

                   35 FOOT HIGH JAPAN TSUMANI CRASHES OVER THE SEA WALL



            


                  


                    


               

                                        JAPAN EARTHQUAKE ANIMAL RESCUE AND SUPPORT


                                



                     
     
                                      MIHO SASAKI with FUMIO