Yumi Kurosawa is a prominent player of the Japanese koto and has experimented with fusions of Japanese traditional music with other traditions. She performs solo, as a concerto soloist with a Western orchestra, and in a trio. Kurosawa was born in Japan into a family of koto players and began taking koto lessons when she was three from her parents, Kazuo and Chikako Kurosawa. At 15, she began studying the 20-string koto with Nanae Yoshimura. Kurosawa won first prizes in Japan's National Koto Competition in 1989 and 1992. As a teenager, she performed at Tokyo's Suntory Hall and on the Japanese television network NHK. Kurosawa earned a degree in international relations from Keio University in Tokyo. In 1998, Kurosawa earned a scholarship from Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs that allowed her to broaden her reach internationally. She toured Russia, Canada, the U.S., and Malaysia. In 2001, Kurosawa appeared on the album Toki no Kagero: Kifu Mitsuhashi plays Akira Nishimura, and in 2002, she moved to New York City, where she remains based. In 2009, she self-released her solo debut, Beginning of a Journey; like most of her recordings, the album featured her own compositions. Her album Spring Sounds, Spring Seas followed on the MSR Classics label in 2012. Kurosawa has performed solo concerts in a variety of New York spaces that includes Carnegie Hall, the Asia Society, the Blue Note jazz club, and the cross-genre venue Joe's Pub. Beyond New York, she has appeared at the National Gallery of Art and the Freer Sackler Gallery in Washington. In 2011, Kurosawa gave the world premiere of Daron Hagen's Koto Concerto with the Orchestra of the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. In 2015, her ballet Tsuru was commissioned by the Houston Ballet and the Asia Society of Texas; she both composed and performed as a soloist in the work. Kurosawa has continued to appear in Japan, performing with Beyoncé's backup dancers Les Twins, at the Kiyomizu-dera historic site in Kyoto. In 2020, she became the first traditional artist to appear at the Australian Chamber Music Festival. That year, Kurosawa formed a trio containing violin and percussion, broadening the range of sounds and traditions available in her music. That trio appeared on her album Metamorphosis, which appeared on the Zoho Music label in 2023. ~ James Manheim, Rovi