Dr. Yoshiko Arahata develops a new collaborative piano curriculum and teaches music theory at NMSU. Arahata came to NMSU following a two-year appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor of Chamber and Collaborative Music at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She also launched and teaches a summer course “The Pianist’s Guide to Dance Accompaniment” that fosters keyboard versatility at Eastman School of Music. Arahata serves on the Creative Music Making committee of the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy and is an active master class teacher and competition adjudicator.

Praised for “possess[ing] an exacting facility at the keyboard, playing with a vibrancy not often heard” (Rochester CITY Newspaper), Yoshiko Arahata enjoys a versatile musical career as a pianist, educator, improvisor, and composer. With a practice grounded in solo and collaboration, her work integrates contemporary and world music, dancers, and visual artists. Top prize winner of national and international competitions including Los Angeles International Liszt Competition and American Virtuosi International Music Competition, Arahata has performed solo piano and collaborative music at renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (Los Angeles), Zipper Hall (Los Angeles), Preston Bradley Hall (Chicago), and across the United States, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Japan, Hong Kong, and Guatemala. She was selected to attend the prestigious Gilmore International Piano Festival fellowship and has appeared frequently on k-Mozart 105.1 FM and WXXI Classical 91.5 FM. Her concerto appearances span from traditional works by Bach and Beethoven to contemporary ensembles with featured piano parts by Wolfgang Rihm, György Ligeti, Steve Reich, and Aaron Jay Kernis.

A sought-after collaborative pianist and chamber musician, Arahata has performed with numerous instrumentalists and vocalists, including renowned violinists Charles Castleman and Robin Scott, principal musicians from Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras, flutist Adam Sadberry (Concert Artist Guild), mezzo-soprano Jessica Ann Best, percussionist Joshua Graham (Marimba One), Ensemble-in-Residence in Texas as the founding member of Elgin Trio, and artists at the Garth Newel Chamber Music Festival and Castleman Quartet Program (strings). During her residency in Chicago, she has collaborated extensively especially with brass, saxophone, and percussion. She has played in +15 large ensembles around the US, from orchestras, new music ensembles, woodwind ensembles, musical theater, to jazz and Argentinian tango bands.

Throughout her career, Arahata has regularly performed and premiered music by living composers and artists who have been historically marginalized in Western classical music space, such as Margaret Bonds, Akira Miyoshi, Ricardo Castillo, Zhao Zhang, Kevin Day, and many more. In addition, she regularly improvises and composes in a variety of styles and mediums. Her most recent composition and music production for Odyssea (2023), a 30-minute dance-on-film in collaboration with QuickSilver Dance Company was showcased on Fringe Festivals in Scotland, UK, New Zealand, New York, and won 2024 Toronto IndieFilmmakers Festival award. Furthermore, she has presented at International Society for Improvised Music Conference, National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy, NYSMTA/MTNA Symposium, Frances Clark Center Piano Inspires, Conero Piano Pedagogy Conference, and KU Asian Classical Music Initiatives Conference.

Arahata holds degrees in Piano Performance at Eastman School of Music (B.M., D.M.A.) and Northwestern University (M.M.), where she studied with Barry Snyder, Alan Chow, Enrico Elisi, and Dariusz Terefenko. She also holds a degree in Brian and Cognitive Sciences at University of Rochester. During her decade of residency in the upstate New York, she has also held diverse teaching, coaching, and jazz ensemble directing positions at +5 universities and community music schools, including Eastman, where she maintained a full studio for both collegiate and community divisions and received the Excellence in Teaching Assistant Award.