About
PIANIST. EDUCATOR. IMPROVISOR. COMPOSER.
from Baroque to Contemporary and Jazz
from Baroque to Contemporary and Jazz
Education:
D.M.A., Piano Performance and Literature, Eastman School of Music
M.M., Piano Performance, Northwestern University
B.M., Piano Performance, Eastman School of Music
B.S., Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
Take Five Scholar, "Health & Community: Influences of Society on Individual Psyches," University of Rochester
D.M.A., Piano Performance and Literature, Eastman School of Music
M.M., Piano Performance, Northwestern University
B.M., Piano Performance, Eastman School of Music
B.S., Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester
Take Five Scholar, "Health & Community: Influences of Society on Individual Psyches," University of Rochester
Photo by Nadine Sherman.
"Shining in her own right without overshadowing [her collaborative musician]...the pianist possesses an exacting facility at the keyboard, playing with a vibrancy not often heard..." (Daniel J. Kushner, Rochester CITY Newspaper)
A sensitive and versatile pianist in styles ranging from Baroque to Contemporary, Yoshiko Arahata maintains a multifaceted musical career as a concert pianist, collaborative pianist, chamber musician, educator, and composer. Top prize winner of national and international competitions including Bradshaw & Buono and Los Angeles Liszt, her solo performances brought her to several stages in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Her solo recitals and performances include AmiCa Associazione musicale internazionale de Calatinoin in Sicily (Italy), Amalfi International Piano Festival (Italy), Gijon International Piano Festival (Spain), International Piano Academy Moulin d’Andé (France), Ritos Project (Greece), Preston Bradley Hall (Chicago), Roppongi Concert Hall (Japan), and Hong Kong Cultural Centre (Hong Kong). Her concerto appearances include works by Bach and Beethoven all the way to contemporaries such as Wolfgang Rihm, and she has worked with renowned composers Steve Reich and Aaron Jay Kernis. Her numerous honors include a Certificate of Recognition by the City of Los Angeles for her dedication to music.
A sought-after collaborative and chamber musician, Arahata has performed with numerous instrumentalists and vocalists, including the renowned violinist Charles Castleman at the Quartet Program. She has gained rigorous collaborative performance and coaching experiences working with diverse array of instrumentalists, vocalists, choirs, and dancers at the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, SUNY Geneseo, Nazareth College, University of Rochester, Monroe Community College, Hochstein School of Music and Dance, and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. During her time in Chicago, she has collaborated actively especially with brass instrumentalists. Moreover, as an active freelance pianist, she has performed on a wide range of performances from classical and jazz styles to musical theater, dance, cabaret shows, as well as church organ services. As a winner of the Luminarts Foundation Grant, Arahata recently presented "Music after 2000" recital tour for piano-percussion duo with percussionist Joshua Graham in the greater Chicago area.
During the pandemic, Arahata performed and produced a virtual Rochester Fringe Festival show with the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Jessica Ann Best featuring a contemporary opera and arts songs. For her show, Rochester CITY Newspaper noted “…this isn’t just a standard recital presentation. Classical musicians, take note: this is how you stage a virtual performance in a pandemic."
Highlights from her chamber music engagements include performances at Garth Newel Music Center Chamber Music Festival, Music Teachers Association of California International Chamber Music Series, and Sunset Concert Series. As a founding member of Elgin trio, she has performed and taught around Texas as an Ensemble-in-Residence of Music Bus Tour. As a chamber musician, Arahata has also appeared on several radio broadcasts including k-Mozart 105.1FM, k-USC 91.5 FM, and Live from Hochstein WXXI-FM 91.5. Equally active as a pianist of large ensembles, she has served as a principal and associate pianist of orchestras and contemporary music ensembles at Eastman, Northwestern, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and at University of Rochester for the Jazz Ensemble.
Dedicated to paving the new music path, Arahata actively performs contemporary music and improvises and composes in a variety of styles and contexts. Her musical vocabulary is diverse and wide-ranging, from historical custom of preluding, ornamentation, and concerti cadenza, to jazz, ballet and modern dance accompaniment, and studio orchestra arrangement. Most recently, she presented her lecture on “Pedagogical Methods to Improvise for Classically Trained Musicians through Variations” at the 2019 International Society for Improvised Music conference. She also composed for choreography by the University of Rochester dance faculty Mariah Steele for the dance show “S.E.E.D.,” and they will perform their new dance-composition collaboration “Time to Change” at the 2019 Rochester Fringe Festival. Continuously seeking artistic growth and ways to connect with her audience, Arahata has actively performed in a variety of musical contexts, outreach venues, and in multi-disciplinary settings.
Equally committed to education, Arahata has taught non-majors and collegiate pianists at Northwestern University, University of Rochester, and the Eastman School of Music, where her teaching was recognized with the Excellence in Teaching Assistant Award. As a studio teaching assistant of Enrico Elisi, she also taught piano majors and taught a course on keyboard techniques and topography of fingering. In addition, Arahata served as a studio and class piano instructor at the Eastman Community Music School for five years and maintained a full studio for both collegiate and community divisions. She has also been a frequent piano faculty member at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan, and in master classes at various colleges and piano festivals in the US, most recently at the 2019 Texas State International Piano Festival. Arahata currently serves on the improvisation committee for the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy.
Arahata holds degrees in Piano Performance at the Eastman School of Music (B.M., D.M.A.) and Northwestern University (M.M.) under the tutelage of Barry Snyder, Alan Chow, Enrico Elisi, and Dariusz Terefenko. She also has a degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences (B.S.) and Take Five Scholar Certificate on her research topic “Health and Community: Influence of Society on Individual Psyche” from the University of Rochester. She has studied in master classes with renowned pianists including Menahem Pressler, Robert McDonald, Meng-Chieh Liu, Marc Durand, Natalya Antonova, Nelita True, Boris Slutsky, Malcom Bilson, Alexander Kobrin, and Jose Ramos Mendez. She grew up in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong and is currently based in Rochester, NY.
Currently, Arahata is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music (Piano) at Alfred University where she teaches Individual and Class Piano courses, Fundamentals of Music and Technology, and directs AU Jazz Ensemble, as well as a Faculty of Piano and Collaborative Piano at the Hochstein School of Music and Nazareth College.
A sensitive and versatile pianist in styles ranging from Baroque to Contemporary, Yoshiko Arahata maintains a multifaceted musical career as a concert pianist, collaborative pianist, chamber musician, educator, and composer. Top prize winner of national and international competitions including Bradshaw & Buono and Los Angeles Liszt, her solo performances brought her to several stages in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Her solo recitals and performances include AmiCa Associazione musicale internazionale de Calatinoin in Sicily (Italy), Amalfi International Piano Festival (Italy), Gijon International Piano Festival (Spain), International Piano Academy Moulin d’Andé (France), Ritos Project (Greece), Preston Bradley Hall (Chicago), Roppongi Concert Hall (Japan), and Hong Kong Cultural Centre (Hong Kong). Her concerto appearances include works by Bach and Beethoven all the way to contemporaries such as Wolfgang Rihm, and she has worked with renowned composers Steve Reich and Aaron Jay Kernis. Her numerous honors include a Certificate of Recognition by the City of Los Angeles for her dedication to music.
A sought-after collaborative and chamber musician, Arahata has performed with numerous instrumentalists and vocalists, including the renowned violinist Charles Castleman at the Quartet Program. She has gained rigorous collaborative performance and coaching experiences working with diverse array of instrumentalists, vocalists, choirs, and dancers at the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, SUNY Geneseo, Nazareth College, University of Rochester, Monroe Community College, Hochstein School of Music and Dance, and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. During her time in Chicago, she has collaborated actively especially with brass instrumentalists. Moreover, as an active freelance pianist, she has performed on a wide range of performances from classical and jazz styles to musical theater, dance, cabaret shows, as well as church organ services. As a winner of the Luminarts Foundation Grant, Arahata recently presented "Music after 2000" recital tour for piano-percussion duo with percussionist Joshua Graham in the greater Chicago area.
During the pandemic, Arahata performed and produced a virtual Rochester Fringe Festival show with the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Jessica Ann Best featuring a contemporary opera and arts songs. For her show, Rochester CITY Newspaper noted “…this isn’t just a standard recital presentation. Classical musicians, take note: this is how you stage a virtual performance in a pandemic."
Highlights from her chamber music engagements include performances at Garth Newel Music Center Chamber Music Festival, Music Teachers Association of California International Chamber Music Series, and Sunset Concert Series. As a founding member of Elgin trio, she has performed and taught around Texas as an Ensemble-in-Residence of Music Bus Tour. As a chamber musician, Arahata has also appeared on several radio broadcasts including k-Mozart 105.1FM, k-USC 91.5 FM, and Live from Hochstein WXXI-FM 91.5. Equally active as a pianist of large ensembles, she has served as a principal and associate pianist of orchestras and contemporary music ensembles at Eastman, Northwestern, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and at University of Rochester for the Jazz Ensemble.
Dedicated to paving the new music path, Arahata actively performs contemporary music and improvises and composes in a variety of styles and contexts. Her musical vocabulary is diverse and wide-ranging, from historical custom of preluding, ornamentation, and concerti cadenza, to jazz, ballet and modern dance accompaniment, and studio orchestra arrangement. Most recently, she presented her lecture on “Pedagogical Methods to Improvise for Classically Trained Musicians through Variations” at the 2019 International Society for Improvised Music conference. She also composed for choreography by the University of Rochester dance faculty Mariah Steele for the dance show “S.E.E.D.,” and they will perform their new dance-composition collaboration “Time to Change” at the 2019 Rochester Fringe Festival. Continuously seeking artistic growth and ways to connect with her audience, Arahata has actively performed in a variety of musical contexts, outreach venues, and in multi-disciplinary settings.
Equally committed to education, Arahata has taught non-majors and collegiate pianists at Northwestern University, University of Rochester, and the Eastman School of Music, where her teaching was recognized with the Excellence in Teaching Assistant Award. As a studio teaching assistant of Enrico Elisi, she also taught piano majors and taught a course on keyboard techniques and topography of fingering. In addition, Arahata served as a studio and class piano instructor at the Eastman Community Music School for five years and maintained a full studio for both collegiate and community divisions. She has also been a frequent piano faculty member at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan, and in master classes at various colleges and piano festivals in the US, most recently at the 2019 Texas State International Piano Festival. Arahata currently serves on the improvisation committee for the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy.
Arahata holds degrees in Piano Performance at the Eastman School of Music (B.M., D.M.A.) and Northwestern University (M.M.) under the tutelage of Barry Snyder, Alan Chow, Enrico Elisi, and Dariusz Terefenko. She also has a degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences (B.S.) and Take Five Scholar Certificate on her research topic “Health and Community: Influence of Society on Individual Psyche” from the University of Rochester. She has studied in master classes with renowned pianists including Menahem Pressler, Robert McDonald, Meng-Chieh Liu, Marc Durand, Natalya Antonova, Nelita True, Boris Slutsky, Malcom Bilson, Alexander Kobrin, and Jose Ramos Mendez. She grew up in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong and is currently based in Rochester, NY.
Currently, Arahata is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music (Piano) at Alfred University where she teaches Individual and Class Piano courses, Fundamentals of Music and Technology, and directs AU Jazz Ensemble, as well as a Faculty of Piano and Collaborative Piano at the Hochstein School of Music and Nazareth College.