Yokoyama, Mioko
Born in Sapporo, Japan. she obtained her BMus (2011) and MMus (2014) degrees in composition from the Tokyo University of the Arts under the guidance of Eisuke Tsuchida, Kenjiro Urata, and Manabu Kawai. She received the University’s Ataka Award. She continued her composition studies on a Yamaha Music Foundation scholarship with Veli-Matti Puumala in the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (2015–19), where she now teaches.
She is interested in deriving new timbres from instruments in an attempt to surprise the listeners. Sometimes she premieres her pieces as a pianist. Her works have been supported by many Finnish and Japanese foundations (including Pro-Musica, Teosto, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Finnish Music Foundation, Sibelius, Nomura, Madetoja, Sibelius-Academy Foundation, and the Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation). Her music has also been commissioned by new music ensembles such as Avanti! chamber orchestra and by festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, Gaudeamus, Time of Music, IMPULS, and others.
Selected works: Kinesis for piano trio (2019), Where a Pendulum Becomes Free for five violas (2020), Metamorphosis of Moments Musicaux no. 3 for flute, violin, viola and cello (2020), Piano Concerto (2021), There Are Always Flowers for saxophone, violin, viola, cello and piano (2021), Song of the Shirt for soprano and guitar (2021), Talking Metals, Talking Drums for six percussionists (2022).