{"id":343,"date":"2017-12-24T05:20:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T05:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/musicalmakiko.com\/en\/?p=343"},"modified":"2017-12-24T15:05:54","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T15:05:54","slug":"looking-back-at-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicalmakiko.com\/en\/life-of-a-pianist\/343","title":{"rendered":"Looking back at 2017."},"content":{"rendered":"

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!<\/h3>\n

2017 was an important year of milestones, and new beginnings for me.<\/p>\n

With the love, help, and support of many people, I finished my Doctoral Thesis “To See Music in your Mind’s Eye: The Genesis of Memorization as a Piano Performance Practice” and graduated Rice University with my Doctorate in Musical Arts.<\/p>\n

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I started working as a consultant to Houston Methodist Hospital’s Center for Performing Arts Medicine, as a part of the research to quantify the neurological benefit of music with the use of fMRI, and EEG.<\/p>\n

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Of course, 2017 was also filled with rewarding performance experiences. It was my third year with River Oaks Chamber Orchestra: an award winning ensemble with inspiring musicians and truly innovative programming and music presentation. It was also a pleasure to return to coach and perform at ArtsAhimsa Music Festival in Lenox, MA. And for my seventeenth annual summer recital tour in Japan, I presented a program titled “Music of the Spheres vs. Battles of Heroes” where I compared and contrasted Bach’s Goldberg Variations to works by “Heroes”: Beethoven, Chopin (“Heroic” Polonaise), and Liszt (Mephisto Waltz).<\/p>\n

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I became a 2017-2018 delegate to US-Japan Leadership Program, and attended a week-long conference in Japan with an amazing group of leaders from diverse fields and backgrounds. It was one of the most inspiring, eye-opening (and fun!!) weeks of my life so far. (usjlp.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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With my duo partner clarinetist Maiko Sasaki, I co-founded MATIMA. We released our first album “100 Years: Early Beethoven and Late Brahms” comparing Beethoven’s first piano sonata, Op. 2-1 (1795), to Brahms’ Sonatas for Piano and Clarinet, Op. 120 (1894). https:\/\/store.cdbaby.com\/cd\/matima<\/a><\/p>\n

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