Yasuko Sugimoto, Japan

SUGIMOTO Yasuko was born in Tokyo and graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. While still being an undergraduate student, she won the 17th Music Award of Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc. In 1974, she went to Germany on a DAAD scholarship. After studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik München, she graduated from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe with top honors and passed the Konzertexamen in 1980. She studied with Yasuko Nakayama in Japan and with Hugo Steurer, Jürgen Uhde and Naoyuki Taneda in Germany.

In 1976, SUGIMOTO won the first prize in the 22nd Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona. She made frequent tours around West Germany including recitals in Köln and Düsseldorf, played with orchestras and made numerous recordings for radio broadcast in countries like West Germany, the Netherlands and Austria.

After returning to Tokyo in 1982, she joined the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, and besides teaching there, she has given recitals and appeared in chamber music and orchestra concerts as well as making recordings for television and radio broadcast.

Being a frequent juror for national and international competitions, she served on the jury at the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1993 to 2000.

She is a Professor at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music and serves at the Piano Teachers' National Association of Japan (PTNA) as Operating Officer, Chairperson of the Performance Development Committee and a member of the Pedagogical Research Committee.

Back to 2005 Jurors