(posted on YouTube by KBR Sessions - Live at Overneath)
Published on Dec 7, 2016 Reiko Yamada Our second release in our Steinway Sessions features the phenomenal talents of Japanese pianist Reiko Yamada playing a piece written by one of her mentors, Akira Ifukube. This uniquely Japanese work of art is brought to life by the powerful and yet delicate playing style of Yamada. We utilized a bit more of our live room space in the mix to bring out the reflections and decays that accompany such beautifully dynamic playing. Reiko Yamada is the principal keyboardist of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. She is a native of Nikko, Tochigi. She enrolled in the Department of Piano at the Tokyo College of Music and majored in instruments. During her four years of study at this college, she was an audit student in Akira Ifukube's seminars. As a result of these seminars, she became greatly inspired by Ifukube's compositions, philosophies, musical ideas and attitude towards music and, consequently, she developed a strong affinity for him. After graduating from college in 1990, Yamada moved to Chicago. She received a scholarship to study in the Piano Performance program at Roosevelt University (Chicago College of Performing Arts), and earned a Master of Music degree. After graduating from Roosevelt University in 1993, she continued herstudy in the piano performance program at DePaul University to further hone her piano skills. While studying from 1992 to 1998, she served as a pianist (and became the principal keyboardist starting in 1995) with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, which is a training ground for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In this orchestra, she performed with world famous conductors such as Sir George Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, and Zubin Mehta While assuming the heavy responsibility of serving as the principal keyboardist for the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Yamada currently and actively performs solos and chamber music in various cities in the US and Japan. Her repertoire is wide and ranges from Baroque music to contemporary music; she even played the cembalo in the Chamber Music Series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Yamada studied piano under Yuriko Shiraishi, Emi Maruyama, Ludmila Lazar and Mary Sauer, and cembalo under Roger Goodman and David Schrader.
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