Interview: Reiko Yamada

Reiko Yamada is a Japanese pianist who attended four years of Akira Ifukube’s seminars at the Tokyo College of Music. As an instrumentalist, she takes an active interest in performing Ifukube’s works in concert and has performed the composer’s Ritmica Ostinata for Piano and Orchestra to acclaim with the Tochigi-ken Symphony Orchestra in 2006, 2010 and 2016, with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra in 2008, and with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 2014 and 2016. Ms. Yamada has recorded several critically praised CDs of Ifukube’s music and served as the principal keyboard of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra since 1995. She has also appeared as a supplemental keyboardist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.