No stranger to the concert stage, Ms. Takesono has appeared in several concerts around the area including last year’s Sopianos concert, San Jose State University’s performance of Bruckner’s “Te Deum”, and Apollo Educational Touring Company’s performance of selections from Rigoletto, Der Rosenkavalier, and Così fan tutte.  Ms. Takesono earned her BA in music from Tufts University and currently studies with Deborah Benedict at her studio in Corte Madera, California.

[picture coming soon]  Yumi Tayama (piano) - Born in Japan, Yumi began piano lessons at age seven.  In college she studied under Prof. Georg Vasarhelyi, a student of Bela Bartok, and received both B.A. and M.A. degrees in piano performance from Tokyo's Musashino Academia of Musicae.  After a year at Mushshino she was awarded a five year scholarship based on her academic and performing excellence.  Both before and after graduation she performed in several concerts in Tokyo and Yokohama.  After graduation she also continued at Musashino, joining the faculty teaching piano.

In 1991, she studied Mozart in Salzburg, Austria, won special recognition and performed at Wiener Saal (Vienna Hall).  Since 1993 she has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area performing as a soloist, and an accompanist for a chamber music orchestra and “Harmony ’84” (www.harmony84.com), a Japanese women’s choral group).  Her activities include performing with Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and fundraising concerts for Kobe earthquake relief.  She has also performed in San Francisco in a program honoring Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who saved many Jews from Lithuania at the beginning of World War II.  In 1995 and 1996, she performed at the prestigious Chopin Festival in Dusznik, Poland.  After a recital in Mountain View in 1997, she twice visited England to have solo recitals in Manchester and London. Her interview and performance were broadcast on BBC Radio.   She is also the mother of two children, ages 2 and 4 years old.

[picture coming soon] - Ruka Shironishi (piano) - Ruka Shironishi was raised in Tokyo and started palying the piano at the age of 6 and violin at the age of 8.  She and her family move to California in 1994, and when she was 16.  She then began studying piano with Mr. Shunsuke Kurakata.  Ruka continued her studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Ms. Peggy Salkind.  During her years at the conservatory, she peformed in numerous settings including her solo recital.  After graduating in the 2000,  Ruka has actively been part of different performances. Of which include accompaying various soloists and serving as the pianist for numerous productions with The Children's Musical Theater San Jose and West Valley College Department of Theater.  She also spends her time teaching privately, as well as at Joyful Melodies in Cupertino.

Keiko also teaches voice and piano privately. She currently has over 50 students taking weekly lessons. The only remaining founding member of Sopianos, (www.sopianos.com), Keiko also serves as the conductor and music director for "Choral Cosmo," www.choralcosmo.org, a Silicon Valley based Japanese chorus.

Gregory Fair (baritone) - http://www.operasj.org/04-05web/fair0405.html A Bay Area native, Gregory earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of California at Berkeley. After graduate studies at the University of Michigan, Greg returned to the Bay Area, where he earned a Master of Arts in vocal performance at San José State University and received the Brent Heisinger Endowment Award as the Outstanding Graduate Student in Music. Since his return to the Bay Area, Greg has been a frequent guest artist with Opera San José, with performances in Tosca (Jailer), Carmen (Dancairo), The Crucible (Thomas Putnam), and Don Giovanni (Masetto). Last year, Greg made his debut with Festival Opera of Walnut Creek as Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera, and he has also performed in concerts and recitals throughout the Bay Area with numerous groups, including the American Bach Soloists, the University Chorus and Symphony in Berkeley, and the Solano Winds.  Greg also lent his considerable talents last fall in another Sopianos.Com Presents production, playing a swashbuckling Mercutio in Gounod's Romeo et Juliet.

Mayumi Ashiya [芦 谷真由美] (Yamaha Electone) - Born and raised in Japan, Mayumi began taking lessons on the electric organ at the Yamaha Music School when she was only four years old. She continued her studies through college where she majored in electric organ.  Upon graduation, Mayumi became an instructor of electric organ at the Yamaha Music School. In 1992, while teaching there, she won the Gold Medal and the 100,000 Yen (U.S. $ 10,000) prize in the "Classical Category) at Yamaha Japanese National Electone Festival & Competition.  She was subsequently chosen to represent Japan in the Yamaha International Electone Competition where she won the Bronze Medal. In each case she played Rachmaninoff's very demanding "Symphonic Dances."

Since then, Mayumi has given a number of solo concerts in and around Tokyo. Other performances include collaborations with various choral and opera groups including Toyama Civic Opera, Ibaraki and Takatsuki-shi Civic Operas, playing Humperdinck's Hänsel and Gretel and Onna wa Suteki. In the coral music area, she has collaborated with Keio University and Nihon Joshidai in Dovorak's Requiem and Fauré's Requiem, and with Nihon Gakuen where she played the organ transcription of Rigoletto by Verdi.  In the last three years Keiko and Mayumi have collaborated and performed together six times. Fortunately for we Northern Californians, four of those performances were here in the Bay Area.  Perhaps the most notable was their wonderful production of Gounod's Romeo et Juliet, held last fall at Santa Clara University, in which Gregory Fair also appeared.  The other two collaborations were staged in Japan.

• Electone Zone - http://www.electone.com/article/?f=view&i=7
• Wikipedia Article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electone

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