Megumi Masaki

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Megumi Masaki
Background information
Born	(1963-09-09) 9 September 1963 (age 58)
Genres	New music multimedia and interdisciplinary works
Occupation(s)	pianist, educator, arts administrator, conductor
Instruments	piano, audio/visual and computer effects
Years active	1993-present
Labels	Centrediscs
Website	megumimasaki.com

Megumi Masaki (born 9 September 1963) is a Japanese-Canadian pianist, multimedia artist, educator, researcher, arts administrator, conductor, and curator.^[1]

Early life and education[]

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Masaki was born in Tokushima, JP. She began her piano studies in Winnipeg, MB with Alice Nakauchi and continued with Leonard Isaacs. She received her Bachelor of Music (Hons.) in Piano Performance from Western University in London, ON, studying with Ronald Turini and Peter Katin. Her graduate degree in Piano Performance and Literature was also from Western University, and her Master's thesis, A Survey of Toru Takemitsu's Solo Piano Music, was supervised by Dr. Jack Behrens. Post-graduate work was at the Royal College of Music in London, UK, where she received an A.R.C.M. (Associate of the Royal College of Music) Diploma in Piano Performance, and an Advanced Studies Diploma in Piano Performance under the instruction of Kendall Taylor, with Philip Wilkinson as her academic supervisor.

Career[]

Academic[]

Since 2006, Masaki has been a member of the piano faculty^[2] at the School of Music at Brandon University in Brandon, MB, Canada, and she was made a full professor in 2014.^{[citation needed]} Notable students include Everett Hopfner (2013 winner, Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition), George Waddell (Research Associate in Performance Science at the Royal College of Music London, UK), Xiaoni Shen (2nd place winner of the 2016 American Protégé International Piano & Strings competition) and Andreas Eggertsberger (Austrian pianist).^{[citation needed]} In 2007 Masaki founded the educational outreach project "Masaki's Rising Stars of Brandon University" in partnership with rural arts associations, schools, and personal care homes.^{[citation needed]} Masaki received the Brandon University Alumni Association's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2010.^[3]

In addition to piano instruction and pedagogy, Masaki directs Brandon University School of Music's New Music Ensemble and its New Music Festival.^[4] In 2019, in collaboration with Brandon University Indigenous Peoples' Centre Knowledge Keeper Barb Blind, Masaki founded the BU Indigenous New Music Festival, featuring contemporary classical music by Indigenous composers.^{[citation needed]}

Masaki is also on faculty at the Casalmaggiore International Festival,^[5] a solo and chamber music summer school and festival in Casalmaggiore, Italy; the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity^[6] in Banff, AB, Canada; and Chetham's International Piano Summer School^[7] in Manchester, UK. She is Artistic Director of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition.^[8] In 2016, she was a Musician in Residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, specializing in interactive electronics and video and serving as an installations mentor.^{[citation needed]}

Megumi Masaki performing Danny's Etudes from Nicole Lizée's Kubrick Etudes, Urumqi, China. 15 Oct 2016

Masaki is a member of the Advisory Council for the Canadian Music Centre's Prairie Regional Office^[9] and the board of the Canadian New Music Network.^[10] She has served as a jury member for the Manitoba Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council, and is an academy delegate for the Canadian Academy for the Recording Arts and Sciences (the JUNO Awards).^{[citation needed]}

Performance[]

Masaki frequently collaborates with composers, visual artists, writers, computer scientists, and choreographers on interdisciplinary projects involving new technologies.^{[citation needed]} She is a member of the Windsor, ON performance collective Noiseborder Ensemble,^[11] and of Slingshot-Kidõ,^[12] an interdisciplinary collective based at the University of Hartford, CT.

Megumi Masaki in performance, International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM).

Masaki has premiered over ninety works for piano, chamber ensembles, and multimedia.^{[citation needed]} As a solo artist she has commissioned pieces from notable Canadian composers such as Nicole Lizée (Kubrick Etudes for piano and glitch (soundtrack and film); Hitchcock Etudes^[13] for solo piano and film), Brent Lee (Immaterial Los Angeles for solo piano; Agency and Structure for piano and fixed video; Ferrovia for piano and interactive video), Keith Hamel (Touch for piano and live electronics^[14]; Corona^[15] for piano, interactive electronics and interactive visuals; Piano Games for piano and new computer game), and T. Patrick Carrabré (Orpheus Drones for piano and electronics; Orpheus (2) for piano, electronics and poetry by Margaret Atwood; Orpheus (1) for piano, toy piano, Roli keyboard, video, and text by Margaret Atwood). As a chamber musician she has collaborated with the Penderecki String Quartet, the Gewandhaus Orchestra soloists, Shauna Rolston, and Koh Gabriel Kameda, among others.^{[citation needed]} She has concertized across North America, Europe, and Asia, including such venues as the National Arts Centre Ottawa, London's Royal College of Music, the Dark Music Days Festival in Reykjavik, IS, and Coronet Concert Hall in Okazaki, JP.^{[citation needed]}

Masaki works particularity with the repertoire of Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté including recording Eckhardt-Gramatté's piano compositions and her works for violin and piano duo (with Oleg Pokhanovski), publishing a critical performance edition of the composer's Piano Caprices, and appearing on film as a historical researcher and pianist in the film “Appassionata: The Extraordinary Life and Works of Eckhardt-Gramatté”, produced by Paula Kelly.^[16]

Recordings[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website