Matsusaka, Kazuko

Violinist and violist who attended the Hartt College of Music, the Indiana University School of Music, and the State University of New York. Her teachers included Josef Gingold, John Graham, and Charles Treger.

She was in the string section of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and the Pittsburgh Opera from 1987 until 1990. In 1991, she became a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Other groups with whom she has performed include the Amici Chamber Players, the Boston Artists Ensemble, the Boston Pops, the Central Massachusetts Symphony, the New England Baroque Soloists, and the Newton Symphony Orchestra.

She appears on the following Boston Pops recordings: America, American Visions, The Celtic Album, Chris Botti in Boston, Holiday Pops, My Favorite Things: A Richard Rodgers Celebration, and A Splash of Pops. You’ll also find her name in the credits of Nicolas Roussakis: Hymn to Apollo/Ephemeris and the Amici Chamber Players Zoo of Dreams.

In January 2005, the Boston Artists Ensemble interpreted Antonin Dvorak’s String Quartet in E flat, Op. 97 at the Peabody Essex Museum and Trinity Church in Massachusetts.

They returned to Trinity on 4^th December 2005 in a program that comprised Claude Debussy’s Trio for Viola, Harp and Flute, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Flute Quartet No. 3, and Maurice Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro and String Quartet in F.

On 29^th January 2006, in the same venue, they offered up Mozart’s String Quartet in C major, K. 515, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence and the always tantalizing Mystery Piece.

On 11^th March 2007, members of the BSO reprised Souvenir of Florence and performed Frank Bridge’s String Sextet in a community concert at Peabody City Hall.

The New England Baroque Soloists took the stage in Chapin Hall at Williams College on 4^th April 2008. Their recital included: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2 and 5 and Contrapunctus No. 1 from The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach; the overture from Tafelmusik III by George Philipp Telemann, the second movement from the Oboe Concerto of Alessandro Marcello, Concerto for Two Horns by George Frideric Handel, Concerto for Two Trumpets by Petronio Franceschini and Cello Sonata in A major by Luigi Boccherini.

On 12^th July 2008, Kazuko took part in the International Musical Arts Institute Chamber Music Festival at FryeburgAcademy where she and Xin Ding teamed up for Mozart’s String Duo No. 1 for Violin and Viola in G. The concert concluded with the two of them being joined by Kango Lee and Eric Rosenblith in a rendering of Debussy’s G-minor string quartet.

It is not unusual to find her doing double duty on BSO concert nights, performing in the main event and the prelude concert. One such concert occurred at Ozawa Hall on 22^nd July 2011 and included Dvorak’s Terzetto in C, Op. 74 and Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat.

On 23^rd October 2011, she and cellist David Fisher, pianist Hisako Hiratsuka and violinist Monica Pegis delivered a faculty recital of quartets by Brahms and Gabriel Faure in Distler Performance Hall at Tufts University.

In the field of music education, she has taught at the New England Conservatory, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Westmoreland Suzuki School of Music.

She performs here on Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 2 in Bb Major, III…

https://youtu.be/t5i_ur0iDGw

Sources:

Matsusaka, Kazuko

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