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Mieko Miyazaki
Koto performer
Mieko Miyazaki started playing the koto at the age of 9, and studied koto and shamisen at the prestigious Tokyo National University of fine Arts and Music. While studying, she passed the competitive NHK-FM Japanese music audition for the shamisen, receiving top mark from judges, also she had the honour of performing at the Imperial Palace for the Emperor and Empress of Japan.
After leaving school, Mieko started to perform as a one of the most talented koto performers playing various styles of koto music and touring extensively in Iceland, Norway, italy, France, Belgium, Singapore, China, and Taiwan.
Also as a talented composer and lyricist, she was commissioned to write music for television, including popular animation programs, and TV commercials. Some of them gained national popularity.
In 2004 she formed a duo unit “East Current”, with one of the most popular shakuhachi player Dozan Fujiwara. East Current gained immediate fame, and they toured many cities in the USA.
Mieko moved to France in 2005, since then she has explored the potential of koto music, collaborating with top class international artists from various fields .
Her current project includes new album “ SAIYUKI”( October 2009), with internationally acclaimed guitarist Nguyên Lê (Vietnam)and tablas player Prabhu Edouard (India) , new album with Corsican traditional male vocal group “Voce Ventu” , collaboration with award winning Vietnamese vocalist Huong Thanh , “Trio Miyazaki” , and a Performance project “ Songs” with the music of John Cage, featuring Koto, Voice and http://www.eclats.net/
Trio Miyazaki
The unusual alliance of three instruments : Bruno Maurice on accordion, Manuel Solans on violin, and Mieko Miyazaki on the koto, three profoundly different identities fuse. You will hear the winds of freedom blow, allowing multiple influences to fuse, jazz, tango, musette, contemporary effects. Completely new musical style where you can find something of your his roots and yet discover something new.
Members of Trio Miyazaki
Bruno Maurice : Accordion
A soloist with an international career, Bruno Maurice teaches at the National Conservatory of the Bordeaux Region. Having obtained a degree in musicology, followed by a French national teaching diploma specialised in musical education and choral singing, he taught secondary school students for 9 years and developed a genuine passion for teaching. He brought this same passion to his accordion studies. Having started learning the instrument aged 6 with Jean-Maris Dazas, then with concert soloist Frédéric Guérouet, Bruno furthered his studies in the Ukraine under the tutelage of one of the greatest masters of the “Bayan” (Russian accordion), Vladimir Vladimirevitch Besfamilnov at the Tchaïkovsky Academy in Kiev. As a result of this deeply intense relationship on both the musical and human planes,he now enjoys the privilege of playing the « Appassionata », his master’s famous instrument. Among Bruno’s multiple awards are the French President of the Republic’s Prize (1988), the SACEM (French national Association of Authors, Composers and Publishers) Interpretation Prize (1988), 1st International Prize in Florence (1992), prizewinner at the Stockholm International Competition (1995), diploma of the Klingenthal International Competition (1995), International 1st Prize for chamber music in Florence (1992). A regular participant in recordings, he has also produced three solo albums : « Eclats de Nacre », « Appassionata 1 » and «Appassionata 2 ». Although Bruno Maurice is one the rare accordion-players to give solo recitals, he also plays much chamber and symphonic music with the « Symphonistes d’Aquitaine », the Garde Republicaine Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of the French Army Choir, etc. He’s also active in the field of contemporary music, premiering new works with ensembles such as Ars Nova, 2E2M, Proxima Centauri or Laboryntus, and collaborating with composers such as Bernard Cavanna, François Rossé, Etienne Rolin. He accompanies singer Hélène Guillemette (winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2005), engages in musical dialogue with organist François-Henri Houbart (organist of the Madeleine Church in Paris), turns out Astor Piazzolla tangos as part of a quintet derived from the National Orchestra of the Bordeaux Aquitaine region. As a composer, in 2007 he premièred his own concerto, « Cri de Lame » with the Symphonistes d’Aquitaine. Along with Mieko Miyazaki (koto) and Manuel Solans (violin), he’s a founder member of the Miyazaki Trio, which reflects multi-cultural musical influences, and which will give birth to its first album in February 2008.