Praised for her “thrilling, inspirational performance” (Florida Sun-Sentinel) and “elegance of line, leaping energy” (San Jose Mercury News), pianist Yukiko Sekino has forged a career that encompasses a wide range of interests. A soloist noted for her performances of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Scriabin, she frequently collaborates in chamber music and performs some of the most challenging twentieth and twenty-first century works.
Sekino is the Gold Medalist of the 2006 International Russian Music Piano Competition and a winner of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award. She has performed as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. Recital highlights have included the Jordan Hall in Boston, Overtures Series in Washington, D.C., Dame Myra Hess Concerts in Chicago, Hitomi Memorial Hall in Tokyo, Japan, Northeast Asia International Piano Festival in China, and U.S. college campuses such as Eastman School of Music, MIT, and Ithaca College.
With an extensive repertoire spanning five centuries, Sekino has undertaken various performance projects. Recent projects include performances of Chopin’s complete Op. 10 and Op. 25 Etudes and the Four Ballades, late works by Alexander Scriabin, and world premieres of compositions by David Rakowski and Ross Bauer. In 2023, she undertook a commissioning project with support from the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation. In this project, composers Mari Kimura and Joseph Di Ponio wrote new works for piano and electronics for Sekino, taking inspiration from the music of Scriabin and Debussy. Committed to the music of our times, Sekino has performed as a soloist in major 20th-century works such as Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano, Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques, and Xenakis’ Eonta and Palimpsest at venues including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Theatre in Miami, and Tanglewood Music Center.
Active as an educator, Sekino has given masterclasses at universities and conservatories in the United States and serves as an adjudicator in various competitions. Her prize-winning students regularly participate in festivals and competitions and continue further studies at top schools. During the summers, she has been faculty and guest artist at East Carolina Piano Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, and Northeast Asia International Piano Festival (China). Having previously taught at Colby College, she is currently an Affiliate Artist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves as piano faculty at New England Conservatory Prep School and School of Continuing Education.
Sekino is a graduate of Harvard University and the Juilliard School and holds a doctoral degree from State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her principal teachers were Gilbert Kalish, Seymour Lipkin, and Robert Levin.
A.B., Harvard University; M.M., The Juilliard School; D.M.A., SUNY Stony Brook.
Studies with Gilbert Kalish, Seymour Lipkin, Robert Levin, and Eda Shlyam.
Also on faculty at MIT; former faculty, Colby College.