Biography

Yoko Reikano Kimura (Koto, Shamisen, Voice)

A koto and shamisen and singer, Yoko Reikano Kimura performs classical Japanese music in the Yamada school style as well as contemporary music for Japanese instruments. Since 2010, she has lived in the US and concretizes regularly there and in Japan.

She has graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts and Music, where she was awarded the top prize for her graduation recital. She continued her studies at the NHK School for Young Professionals and the Institute of Contemporary Music for Traditional Japanese Instruments.  Also the Agency of Culture Affairs elected her as the internship trainee.  Yoko received her stage name "Reikano" from Hiroko Nakanoshima VI.  Her main teachers include Kono Kameyama for Yamada school of koto music, Akiko Nishigata for modern Japanese shamisen music, and Senko Yamabiko who is a living national treasure for Kato-bushi shamisen.

Yoko has won numerous awards including the top prize at the prestigious 10^th Kenjun Memorial All Japan Competition. She received the first prize at the Great Wall International Music Competition and the Osaka Chinese Counsel Award and won the Japanese music audition for NHK FM radio. Since then she has performed numerous classical Yamada pieces for the radio. She performed at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo for the play, "Sukeroku" starring Danjuro Ichikawa XII. For the Traditional Music Digital Library at the Senzoku Gakuen Music University website, she recorded various classical shamisen works. Those performances can be accessed worldwide through the Internet.

An enthusiastic supporter of contemporary music, Yoko has premiered new works at the Japan Society for Contemporary Music. Her collaboration with Yuiko Tomita, a classical violinist, began in 2000 and their duo Y's Sound won the Debut Concert Audition at Toppan Hall (Tokyo) as the first Japanese-Western music duo in the history of the competition.  The concert was included in the TV program Culture Channel. Currently she concretizes in the US and Japan with her husband, Hikaru Tamaki, the principal cellist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2011 the duo was awarded the Janet Latz Professional Fellowship in recognition of their cross cultural musical activities.  Since 2004, Yoko has concertized around the world, performing in such places as Poland, Switzerland, France, Lithuania, Korea, China, Israel. In 2011 Yoko performed in Doha for the AFC Asian Cup and she also traveled to Italy for a collaborative performance.  Also she gave various performances and workshops in Jamaica, Bolivia and Peru for the Japanese Arts in Latin America program promoted by the Japan Foundation New York.

Yoko has given numerous recitals in New York and duo recitals with her husband in Chicago. Her many university performances includes those at the Harvard University, the New England Conservatory, the City University of New York, Berklee College of Music and Texas A&M University.

箏・三絃（三味線）・唄の山田流古典曲～新作初演まで幅広く演奏活動中。２０１０年、アメリカに拠点を移し、以来アメリカと日本の両国をベースに国内外で活動中。

4歳よりピアノを始め、幼少より様々な音楽に親しむ。箏の音色に惹かれ、10歳より井上友香能師より箏の手ほどきを受ける。 '91年より山田流箏曲を亀山香能師に師事。（現在に至る）六世中能島弘子師より、名号「伶香能」・教授を許される。 '04年より、河東節三味線を人間国宝 山彦千子師に師事。河東節「山彦伶子」の名を許される。現代邦楽を西潟昭子師に師事。

東京芸術大学音楽部邦楽科卒業。NHK邦楽技能者育成会修了。現代邦楽研究所研究科（三味線専攻）修了。平成16年度文化庁芸術インターンシップ研修員。2010年まで洗足学園音楽大学非常勤講師、桐生大学箏曲部講師を務める。