RURIKO OSAWA

 

Japanese-born pianist, Ruriko Osawa, is an accomplished performer both as a soloist and chamber musician. Although her degrees focus on solo performance, she has collaborated with many singers and instrumentalists. Her interest in chamber music led to her participation at the Bowdoin Music Festival in Maine. She was also invited to participate in the Idyllwild Chamber Music Festival in California both in 2000 and 2001. In 2003, she performed in the new music ensemble, Peabody Camerata, under the direction of Gene Young. She received an Accompanying Assistantship from Peabody Conservatory from 2004-2007. Winner of numerous competitions and a recipient of the Grand Prize at the Sapporo (Japan) Young Musicians Concert for her “outstanding performance,” she has appeared as a soloist in the Temple Square Concert Series in Salt Lake City, Utah as well as the Sapporo Musicians Concert Series and Sapporo City Hall Concert Series in Japan.

 

Always interested in expanding new audiences for classical music, Dr. Osawa performed many concerts in the intimate and engaging setting in her native city of Sapporo and other cities in Hokkaido, while residing there from 1999-2003. In 2000-20003, she organized a concert-lecture series in Sapporo where she performed both as a soloist and chamber musician. She received Peabody’s Career Development grant, which made it possible for her to resume the series in November 2007. In 2010, Dr. Osawa served as a guest artist for a workshop at Chadron State University in Nebraska where she also gave a Master Class and piano duet concert.

 

Dr. Osawa earned her B.M. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at Brigham Young University as a recipient of the E. Mona Smith Scholarship and the Outstanding Achievement Award in Piano Performance. She was awarded the Anne and Aaron Richmond Scholarship from Boston University, where she earned her M.M. in Piano Performance. Recently, she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Her major teachers include Paul Pollei, Anthony di Bonaventure, Tong-Il Han, and Ellen Mack.

 

As a devoted teacher, Dr. Osawa teaches piano at The Park School of Baltimore and Garrison Forest School in Maryland. She is also an Assistant Director and Accompanist of Peabody Preparatory Children’s Chorus.