AYAKO TSURUTA
Piano

Artistic Director - Odyssey Chamber Music Series, Artistic Director - Plowman Chamber Music Competition, Yale University

Pianist AYAKO TSURUTA has given numerous concerts throughout North America, Europe and the Middle East. A musician with special interest in promoting chamber music, she is the Artistic Director of the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and is also the Music Director for the Odyssey Chamber Music Series in Columbia, Missouri.

Her performances in summer festivals include Aspen, Banff, Ravinia and Tanglewood, as well as Meranofest and Accademia Chiagiana in Italy, and Figueira da Foz in Portugal.

Winner of many concerto competitions, she has appeared as soloist with the Julliard Symphony, Eastern Connecticut, Connecticut Chamber, and Wallingford Symphony Orchestras in the United States, and the University Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Malcolm Forsyth in Edmonton, Canada.

An avid chamber musician, she was an Artistic Collaborator for the Magisterra International Chamber Music Festival in Iowa City, Quartet Program at Lewisburg in Pennsylvania, and MusiCamp in Red Deer, Alberta. Her collaboration with violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel led to performances in North America, Germany and Lebanon. They have recorded a series of works by Women Composers on Cybele label.

A native of Japan, Ayako Tsuruta relocated to Connecticut in 1980. She continued her studies with Leena K. Crothers in New Haven, the late Josef Raieff at Julliard School, Claude Frank at Yale University, Maria Curcio-Diamand in England, and the late Marek Jablonski at University of Alberta.

Ayako Tsuruta has taught as Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta from 1999 to 2002 and at the University of Missouri in Columbia the following year, where she resides with her husband, pianist Peter Miyamoto.  Ayako Tsuruta currently runs a studio of more than twenty students, teaches a weekly theory class for the pianists, and performs both solo and chamber music throughout the year.