Akiko Sasaki, piano

The vibrant pianist Akiko Sasaki has performed as soloist and chamber music artist at the Huston Fine Art Center and the Richie Center at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. She has won numerous awards including the Mu Phi Epsilon Bernstein Crosman Scholarship for Foreign Study and the Allied Arts Scholarship for Foreign Study in London, the Allied Arts Sponsorship for Deeper Piano Studies, the Lamont School of Music Concerto Competition, the University of Denver’s Soloist and Collaborative Artist Provost Performer Award, the University of Denver’s Outstanding Musician Award, the Wells Music Yamaha Piano Competition, and piano solo awards from the Winter Park Festival, the Mile High Festival and the UNC Festival. She has also attended the Colorado Boulder Festival, the Summit New York Festival, and the Goppisberger Musik in Switzerland, Notes at 9,000 Music Festival in Winter Park, Colorado, and the International Keyboard Institute Festival in New York. Ms. Sasaki has performed in master classes and workshops with Frederic Chiu, Vadim Monastirsky, Eugene Skovorodnikov, Mariann Abraham, Andrew Rangell, Fabio Bidini, and Victor Rosenbaum, in addition to formal studies with Alice Rybak, Benjamin Kaplan, Jeffrey Cohen, Miyoko Lotto, Julian Martin, and Jose Ramon Mendez. She holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Denver and a Master of Music Degree from the Manhattan School of Music and is currently a member of the Piano Faculty at the Larchmont Music Academy and the Merit Music School. In April 2006, Ms. Sasaki made her New York debut at Weill Recital Hall/Carnegie Hall as winner of the Artists International Competition Special Presentation Award.