Biography
Yumi Kurosawa has established herself as a leading exponent of the Japanese koto while pursuing innovative blends that merge traditional Japanese music with diverse global styles. She appears alone, as featured soloist alongside Western orchestras, and within a three-piece ensemble.
Born in Japan to a household of koto musicians, she began lessons at age three under her parents, Kazuo and Chikako Kurosawa. At fifteen she turned to the twenty-string koto under the guidance of Nanae Yoshimura. She captured top honors at Japan’s National Koto Competition in both 1989 and 1992. During her teenage years she played at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and on the NHK television network. She later completed a degree in international relations at Keio University in Tokyo.
A 1998 scholarship awarded by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs enabled her to reach audiences abroad; she subsequently toured Russia, Canada, the United States, and Malaysia. In 2001 she contributed to the album Toki no Kagero: Kifu Mitsuhashi plays Akira Nishimura. The following year she relocated to New York City, which has remained her base. Her first solo recording, Beginning of a Journey, appeared under her own imprint in 2009 and, like most of her releases, consisted entirely of her own compositions. Spring Sounds, Spring Seas followed on the MSR Classics label in 2012.
She has given solo recitals at numerous New York venues, among them Carnegie Hall, the Asia Society, the Blue Note jazz club, and the cross-genre space Joe’s Pub. Outside the city she has performed at the National Gallery of Art and the Freer Sackler Gallery in Washington. In 2011 she delivered the world premiere of Daron Hagen’s Koto Concerto with the Orchestra of the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Two years later the Houston Ballet and the Asia Society of Texas commissioned her ballet Tsuru, for which she both composed the score and appeared as soloist. She has returned regularly to Japan, where she shared a stage with Beyoncé’s backup dancers Les Twins at the historic Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto. In 2020 she became the first traditional artist invited to the Australian Chamber Music Festival. That same year she assembled a trio featuring violin and percussion, thereby expanding the timbral and cultural palette of her work. The group is featured on her 2023 Zoho Music release, Metamorphosis.
Born in Japan to a household of koto musicians, she began lessons at age three under her parents, Kazuo and Chikako Kurosawa. At fifteen she turned to the twenty-string koto under the guidance of Nanae Yoshimura. She captured top honors at Japan’s National Koto Competition in both 1989 and 1992. During her teenage years she played at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and on the NHK television network. She later completed a degree in international relations at Keio University in Tokyo.
A 1998 scholarship awarded by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs enabled her to reach audiences abroad; she subsequently toured Russia, Canada, the United States, and Malaysia. In 2001 she contributed to the album Toki no Kagero: Kifu Mitsuhashi plays Akira Nishimura. The following year she relocated to New York City, which has remained her base. Her first solo recording, Beginning of a Journey, appeared under her own imprint in 2009 and, like most of her releases, consisted entirely of her own compositions. Spring Sounds, Spring Seas followed on the MSR Classics label in 2012.
She has given solo recitals at numerous New York venues, among them Carnegie Hall, the Asia Society, the Blue Note jazz club, and the cross-genre space Joe’s Pub. Outside the city she has performed at the National Gallery of Art and the Freer Sackler Gallery in Washington. In 2011 she delivered the world premiere of Daron Hagen’s Koto Concerto with the Orchestra of the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Two years later the Houston Ballet and the Asia Society of Texas commissioned her ballet Tsuru, for which she both composed the score and appeared as soloist. She has returned regularly to Japan, where she shared a stage with Beyoncé’s backup dancers Les Twins at the historic Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto. In 2020 she became the first traditional artist invited to the Australian Chamber Music Festival. That same year she assembled a trio featuring violin and percussion, thereby expanding the timbral and cultural palette of her work. The group is featured on her 2023 Zoho Music release, Metamorphosis.
Albums
A Room Made of Quiet: Koto Melodies
2026
Soft Hours: Relaxing Koto Melodies
2026
Beginning of a Journey
2009
Singles
