is a Japanese singer. She is known in Japan for her wide repertoire of Finnish Lieder, and is among the first artists to introduce Finnish vocal Music to Japan. She also performs Russian romances, German

Lieder In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French sp ...

, French and Italian

art songs An art song is a Western world, Western vocal music Musical composition, composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical music, classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is ...

, operatic

aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

s, as well as Japanese songs. She studied at the

Tokyo College of Music is a private music school in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded as in Kanda, Tokyo, in 1907. History The college moved to Toshima in Tokyo in 1924 after the original campus was destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake. Some notable gradu ...

and its graduate school, and graduated the performer course as top of her class in 2002. She has won several prizes in national and international vocal contests. She continued vocal studies for several years in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

with

Jorma Hynninen Jorma Kalervo Hynninen (born 3 April 1941) is a Finnish baritone who performs regularly with the world's major opera companies. He has also worked in opera administration. Hynninen was born on 3 April 1941 in Leppävirta, Finland. He studied fro ...

. Yoko Maria performs mainly in Tokyo, where she gives monthly recitals at venues including the

Suntory Hall The is a concert venue in the central Akasaka district of Tokyo, Japan. Part of the Ark Hills complex, it consists of a main concert hall, widely considered one of the finest in the world for its acoustics — indeed Herbert von Karajan called i ...

, the Kioi Hall, and

Tokyo Opera City is a skyscraper located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Completed in 1996, it stands 234 metres (768 feet) high and has 54 floors. The tower is the third-tallest building in Shinjuku, Tokyo and seventh-tallest in Tokyo. The closest train stat ...

. She gave her US debut concert to a full house at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

on December 15, 2010. She is a relative of Conductor Kent Nagano. Apart from her classical repertoire of Lieder and operatic arias, Yoko Maria combines also film music and jazz in her own crossover style. She also writes her own lyrics for modern and crossover pieces. Her debut album "Ave Maria – Eternal Love" is a compilation of classical and crossover pieces, and she recently appeared on a house compilation of songs from

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and ha ...

. On May 21, 2018 Yoko Maria performed at

with Dutch composer and pianist Gijs van Winkelhof.

World Tour

* Paris March 13, 2015 * Sydney January 3, 2015 * New York May 21, 2018 * New York June 23, 2022

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century Japanese women opera singers Japanese operatic sopranos Singers from Tokyo Tokyo College of Music alumni {{opera-singer-stub