Music is a window into ourselves, our culture and communities, linking our past and our present. It engages us as performers and audiences, students and teachers, in a way that taps into our emotions, psyches, creativity and reverence. It should be at once both deeply personal and universally meaningful. Music-making can be the greatest fun or the most heart-felt and elevated expression. For all of these qualities, I believe that music should be in the lives of everyone, experienced and explored with great breadth, both at the instrument and away. My greatest joy and responsibility as teacher is to help open this window for my students, to introduce and guide them through the technical and theoretical aspects of musical construction and execution, as well as engage them in the history and narrative of each work and its continuing relevance personally and globally. Whether learning scales and etudes, great Classical war-horses or contemporary works, we will enjoy both rigorous attention to detail and broad-view consideration of meaning and interpretation.
An active and versatile teacher in the Boston area for many years, Ms. Tsuchiya works with students of all ages and levels. Areas of instruction include solo piano, duo and chamber music, class instruction, lecture-recital and vocal coaching. She holds many chair and coordinator positions at New England Conservatory in addition to teaching in the Prep and Continuing Ed schools, and was for many years the Director of the Summer Chamber Music Festival at the Winchester Community Music School. Ms. Tsuchiya is also on the piano faculty at the Winsor School. Her primary instructors have included Victor Rosenbaum, Lydia Artymiw, and Irma Vallecillo.
Pianist Aimee Tsuchiya has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, including several concerto engagements at Mechanics Hall, and live broadcasts on WGBH, Chicago Public Radio, and CBC radio. Her broad performance repertoire has showcased works as various as Brahms’ first piano concerto and his complete chamber works; John Cage’s The Perilous Night for prepared piano; Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time in Jordan Hall; the world premiere of Abby Richardson’s Downstream for piano and orchestra with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra; and a recital of early 20th-century violin repertoire with Karl Stobbe, concertmaster of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Tsuchiya has worked and performed with members of the Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic, Emmanuel Music, Guarneri Quartet, Peabody Trio, Gryphon Trio, and Cleveland Quartet, as well as pianists Emanuel Ax, Awadagin Pratt, Margot Garrett, and Andre Watts. Awards include competition wins in the Chopin Society Young Artists Competition, the Schubert Club Competition, Thursday Musical Competition, the top piano prize in the Minnesota Orchestra’s Young People's Symphony Concert Association, finalist in the New World Symphony auditions, and fellowships to Interlochen, Tanglewood, Yellow Barn, and Banff Chamber Music Festivals.
B.M., summa cum laude, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; M.M. and D.M.A., New England Conservatory