Featured Artist at New Age CD

Our Featured Artist is MASAKO

Masako, Pianist and Composer

Masako is a pianist and composer who resides in the Northeastern USA. Since her first album, MASAKO, she has been working with Will Ackerman and Tom Eaton. Every one of her albums either won an award or was nominated for awards. Her fifth album, “Hidden Flowers,” was released in April, 2020.

Masako started taking piano lessons at the age of four, and already started to compose tunes when she was five years old. She had the privilege of being a student of Ms. Yuko Yamaoka, a legendary piano teacher who was a judge for the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, and a vibrant and brilliant performer in her own right.

Ms. Yamaoka had a unique style in training her students. Sometimes she would have the student stand by the piano and express through body movement what the piece was about, even before actually starting on a new piece. Her belief was that you need to first internalize the music with your whole being and live it so you will play from within, not just with your fingers.

“Some of the very finest work I’ve heard in my career… Performances of such quality that are so rare as to be nearly mythical…” — Will Ackerman, Grammy®-winning guitarist, producer, founder of Windham Hill Records