Pinz Professional Development Award, Panta Rhea Foundation Arts for Change Activity Award, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council: Creative Engagement, and New Music USA Project Grant. Mihoko began her musical training at the age of five, studied piano at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo and composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree. 

 

MY INFLUENCES

 

Growing up in Japan, my musical life was formed around daily rituals of practicing piano and listening to

the stereo high that my older brother used to play. Throughout the late 70s and early 80s, my brother was

a maniacal fan of British Progressive Rock and Fusion. While I practiced Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, he would blast his stereo at maximum volume playing records of ELP, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, or Weather Report. Astonishingly enough, our neighbors never complained once.

The peculiar "sonic battle" between the two of us had certainly impacted my adolescent musical mind.

 

Later on I enrolled in music conservatoires and expanded the realm of Western music beyond 18th, 19th-century German Classicism through the composers of Medieval/Renaissance and 20th-century such as Stravinsky, Bartok, John Cage, and Steve Reich. The musical reminiscences from my childhood were present, however, remained rather subconscious until my brother passed away in 1997. "Trust your ear" - my composition teacher Nils Vigeland used to tell me. Although it took a lot longer than Luke Skywalker learned to use the 'Force', I finally feel there is something inside of me I can rely on and let unleash beyond my wildest expectations. It's a good thing.