ARTISTS

Marimba KAMIYA Momoko

PROFILE


Acknowledged for her deep musicality with both energy and sensitivity, Momoko Kamiya has been considered as one of the leading marimbist in her generation for many years.
She is a professor of the percussion department at Tokyo College of Music. She is also a permanent guest professor at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music where she served as the head of the percussion department for 5 years, a permanent guest professor at Elizabeth Music University, and a percussion faculty at Kunitachi College of Music. She was also a faculty at Aichi Prefectural University of Art and Okinawa Prefectural University of Art for over 20 years.

She was awarded the first prize at the Luxembourg International Marimba competition in 1995. The Toyota Foundation selected her as one of “The Top Young Artists Today” in 2001 ,and in 2005 she was recognized by Kawasaki City, Japan for her distinguished musical activities and received the Azalea Cultural Prize. 

Momoko Started taking marimba lessons from Atsushi Sugahara at age of 7.
She received the honor to be the first successful candidate to be accepted to Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music in its history as a marimba soloist. In the following year she entered the Juilliard School and completed the Bachelor of Music and was honored with many scholarships . 

She actively presents concerts throughout Japan and various countries in Europe, Asia, United States and South America. She has been constantly invited to give masterclasses and concerts at many music festivals and seminars in Japan as well as abroad including International Summer Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg .She has served on the juries of international competitions in over 10 countries which includes Linz International Marimba Competition, TROMP Eindhoven International Percussion Competition, and International Percussion Competition Luxembourg .She has made numerous concerto performances with major orchestras in Japan, Europe, and Asia. With the trust from many composers, she has premiered many pieces many of which dedicated to her. In recent years, she successfully premiered the pieces by Joe Hisaishi, Toshiyuki Watanabe, Kousuke Yamashita, and Kazunori Miyake.
Her 6 solo CDs were all highly acclaimed for her splendid performance, also to its unique and stylish programing. In 2018, she released a new CD of a new trio of marimba, violin and electric organ established with her respected colleagues Sachika Mizuno and Hiromi Akatsuka.

Besides the universities in Japan, she has invited to give lessons and masterclasses from many universities and conservatories in abroad such as Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main , Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, Anton Bruckner Privatuniversitat, Conservatoire a Rayonnement Regional de Paris CRR, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Manhattan School of Music, Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Shenyang Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Conservatory, National Taiwan Univeristy of Arts, Korea National University of Arts, Mahidon University in Thailand and more.

Momoko Kamiya is a YAMAHA artist and exclusively plays YM 5100 model. She is also a signature artist of Resta-Jay Percussions. Her signature marimba mallets have been developed from Resta-Jay Percussions.
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