Since arriving in New York City in 1992 Masayo Ishigure has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall-Weill Recital Hall, BAM,
Merkin Hall, Trinity Church and other venues in the NY city metropolitan
area. She has performed at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and many
other prestigious Universities and Colleges. She was a guest artist with
NY City Ballet Principal Dancer Mr.Peter Boal, and with the San Diego
Symphony Orchestra. Ms Ishigure has also performed in Hawaii, Alaska,
Mexico, Russia, Belarus, and many venues throughout the United States.
She has participated in music festivals in Holland, Germany, and France.
Ms.Ishigure has appeared in concerts for the World Music Institute, Japan
Society, Music from Japan series and Bang on a Can Festival. In 2001 and
2005, Ms.Ishigure and several of her students performed with koto master
Kazue Sawai at the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington
DC. In 2005 she and her students also appeared with Kazue Sawai at Towson
University in Maryland and the Asia Society in NYC. She has been featured
in two public television broadcasts, Music Under New York,and World of
Music. In 1997, she recorded koto music for CBS Master Work for use during
the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. She has recorded koto music for use in
several television commercials. Since 1992, Ms.Ishigure has been teaching
koto and shamisen in the music department of Wesleyan University (CT)
as an artist in residence where she formed the Wesleyan Koto Ensemble.
She also offers private lessons as the only Sawai Koto Academy Instructor
in the New York City and Washington DC area. In August, 2005, she recorded
koto music for the soundtrack of the movie "Sayuri" with Yo-Yo Ma and
John Williams. For more information, visit her
website