Yurie (Piano Instructor)
Japanese-American pianist Yurie Farnsworth has established herself as an emerging young artist across Oregon, Texas and Japan.
In 2008, Yurie won the 2nd place title at the National level of the MTNA Piano Competition. As a Junior at the Shepherd School of Music, Yurie became the first undergraduate student to win the school’s piano concerto competition in many years, and was subsequently presented as a soloist with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra in 2015. .
In 2019, Yurie won 3rd prize at the Aoniyoshi Music Competition in Nara, Japan. In 2021, Yurie won the Grand Rachmaninoff Prize, as well as the overall 2nd prize at the 3rd International Rachmaninoff Piano Competition.
In 2024, Yurie presented her doctorate thesis, “The art of intoning music: an alternative approach to analysis and interpretation of Rachmaninoff’s piano music through Boris Asafiev’s theory of intonation”, alongside a final exam performance consisting of Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto and second piano sonata, the latter of which was arranged by Yurie as a mix of both the 1913 and 1931 versions.
Yurie has also performed in various venues across Japan and in Tokyo, including the salon concert halls at the Ginza Yamaha and Omotesando Kawai buildings, as well as with orchestra at the Sumida Triphony Hall. .
Nanako (Cello Instructor)
She started performing while a student at Keio University.
While a postgraduate student at Tokyo University of the Arts, she studied at the Liszt State Conservatory of Music in Hungary. After performing in Budapest, where she was based, as well as in Germany, Austria and other countries, she returned to Japan.
Currently, in addition to guest appearances with orchestras throughout Japan, she is also active in a wide range of performance activities, such as supporting artists and collaborating with various artworks.
Not only as a player, but also as a songwriter and string arranger, producing and consulting on concert projects, writing liner notes and columns, magazine dialogues - her ways of expression are endlessly borderless. She also gives lectures and talks in various locations on the fascinating world of music and fragrance, including 'The Fragrance Floor' by S. Pies.Lecturer, Tokyo Junior Orchestra Society.
[Supporting Artists]
Yuzo Kayama/ Predawn/ Rayons/ X Japan/ YOSHIKI/ Nana Mizuki/ Billboard Classics etc.
[Guest orchestras].
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra
Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra
Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrés (Violin Instructor)
Andrés is a professional violin teacher/performer graduated from the Universidad de Lanús. Academic in Argentina (Bachelor's Degree in Music)
He has been awarded Professor in Instrument: Violin. from Piazzolla Conservatory. In title on issue. Year 2021 and also a Violin and Viola Professor of the Berisso Orchestra-School. City of Berisso. From April 2014 to February 2018.
Regular violin lessons with Maestro José Bondar (Private), Violin Masterclasses with Professor Anastasia Storer (USA) Nicolás Favero (Argentina), Gilles Apap (France) Dmitri Berlinsky (Russia) and Campos do Jordao, Brazil.
He has been an active performer as a soloist and as a collaborative violinist for other instruments and various orchestras.
He was a violinist for Camerata Académica del Teatro, Orquesta Estable del Teatro and The National Symphony Orchestra Argentina.
Besides, he was also a guest member ( Violin ) for the Suginami District Philharmonic Orchestra (杉並フィルはハーモニー管弦楽団) and the Nakano District Citizens' Symphony Orchestra (中野区民交響楽団)in Tokyo.
Currently he is studying in Yokohama National University. Andres received a Japanese MEXT scholarship for the Teacher training program.
A very dedicated violinist and educator. His warm, humble and approachable personality one that has surely helped him succeed.
He speaks 3 languages - English, Spanish and Japanese.
Hiroko (Piano Instructor)
Until May 2025, Hiroko has served as a piano instructor at German state music schools for 12 years. After 20 years in Europe, she returned to Japan. She began playing the piano at the age of four and won top prizes, excellence awards, and special jury prizes in national piano competitions, including the Machida City Piano Competition, Young Artist Piano Competition and Japan Piano Competition.
Hiroko graduated from the Toho Gakuen School of Music, where she studied under Hidemitsu Hayashi and Mikhail Voskresensky. She then pursued a Master’s degree in Piano Performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, UK studying under Joan Havill. With a deep interest in German composers, she pursued advanced studies under Gerald Fauth at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, in the city where J.S. Bach lived and worked.
This institution, where Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn once taught, awarded her the Konzertexamen (National Concert Diploma) with top honors, followed by the Meisterklassenexamen (equivalent to a doctoral degree) in Piano Solo, supported by a full scholarship from the German government. During her studies, Hiroko taught secondary piano. She also won first prize in the university’s Freundeskreis Scholarship Competition. As a soloist, she has performed with the Philharmonic Altenburg-Gera and the Leipzig Chamber Philharmonic. Additionally, she won third prize in international piano competitions in the UK and Italy.
After completing the Meisterklassenexamen, she was awarded a full scholarship to the Fellowship Program at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada, where she studied under John Perry, expanding her musical horizons in a global setting.
In 2013, Hiroko started working as a piano instructor at a state music school Musikschule Mittelsachsen in Saxony, Germany. In 2016, she collaborated with fellow members of the piano trio “TrioSono” and released the album Gefunden in cooperation with MDR (Central German Broadcasting). They performed in concerts across Germany, including at the Semperoper Dresden. That same year, she relocated to Berlin, where she continued working as a piano instructor at Berlin's government state music school Musikschule City West.
In addition to her teaching and performing career, she has actively participated in charitable activities, including collaborations with UNICEF. Several of her students have been accepted into prestigious institutions such as the Berlin University of the Arts and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.
Hiroko is fluent in English, German and Japanese.
Naoko (Violin Instructor)
Naoko Aoki. After graduating from the Toho Gakuen School of Music, Naoko-sensei completed a master's degree in ancient instruments at the Conservatoire de Genève.
She has been active as a violinist and has participated in the Musique Musicale du Palais du Louvre under Marc Minkowski, Orfeo 55 under Nathalie Stutzmann, Classical Players Tokyo under Masahiro Arita and the Tokyo Mozart Players under Tatsunori Numajiri. She also has extensive experience in teaching mainly in Japanese and French.
Ayako (Viola Instructor)
After graduating from Toho Girls' High School Music Department, she moved to the United States.
She won a full scholarship and she entered the Ohio State University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
She then went to Hungary where she studied chamber music at the Budapest Liszt Conservatory.
On the recommendation of her former teacher, Walter Levin, when she was in Cincinnati, she entered the Basel Musikhochschule in Switzerland.
She has a Diploma in Music Education and a Performer's Diploma at the top of her class. While still in school, she became a member of the Basel Symphony Orchestra.
In 1997 she became a violist with the Lyon National Opera Orchestra in France.
While performing in the orchestra, she received the Soloist Diploma from the Lucerne University of Music in Switzerland with first place.
She was invited to join the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra where she served as Associate Principal Viola from April 2015 to August 2016.
In September 2016 she returned to the Orchester National de Lyon.
In May 2022, she formed Ensemble KOKOLO, hoping to create a world where people can respect each other and create a wonderful harmony beyond borders and races.