Mayumi Miyata

Mayumi Miyata is distinguished by being one of the first artists to bring the traditional Asian instrument Shō to worldwide recognition and expands its awareness not only as a traditional instrument but one that has a valid place in contemporary music.

Having graduated from Kunitachi College of Music in piano, Mayumi Miyata studied “Gagaku” (Ancient Japanese Court Music), and in 1979 she joined the Gagaku ensemble at the National Theater of Japan. Since her debut recital in Tokyo in 1983, she has been active as a soloist and stunned audiences in Europe and North America, in concert halls like La Scala in Milan, Vienna Konzerthaus and at festivals such as London Proms, Milano Musica, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wien Modern, Octobre en Normandie, Darmstadt International Summer Course, Musica Viva (Munich), Orleans International Music Week, Pacific Music Festival Sapporo, and Takefu International Music Festival.

Mayumi Myata has worked closely with John Cage, and other composers such as Toru Takemitsu, Toshio Hosokawa, Helmut Lachenmann, Paul Méfano, Klaus Huber, and Pierre-Yves Artaud. Her recent orchestra engagements include the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Kazushi Ono, the Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie with Kazushi Ono, the NHK Symphony Orchestra with Charles Dutoit for their European tour in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, Munich and Berlin, the New York Philharmonic with André Previn, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra with Seiji Ozawa, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Bamberger Symphoniker with Jonathan Nott and the Orchestre National de Lyon with Jun Maerkl.

Furthermore she was nominated as cultural ambassador by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, promoting knowledge of the Shō overseas.

As of July 2019