Marina Iwao  

Japanese born pianist, Marina Iwao has appeared on concert stages throughout Japan and the United States as a soloist and collaborative pianist. Performing regular recitals in Boston, New York, and Japan, Marina has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, and Across Fukuoka Symphony Hall in Japan.  Marina was recently featured on WQXR’s McGraw Hill Young Artists Showcase with a cellist, Mina Kim, performing Lucas Foss’s Capriccio.

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Marina was named a collaborative piano fellow at Music Academy of the West in summer 2018 and 2019 and was a collaborative piano fellow at Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2017. In fall 2017, she performed the Schumann Piano Quintet with the Quatuor Debussy at Fukuoka Symphony Hall in Japan. 

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As a soloist, she was the first prize winner of the 2015 Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition and was invited to perform at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.  Marina also won the Solo con Tutti concerto competition, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as a soloist with the Alliance Ohio Symphony Orchestra. She has also attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine as well as the International Keyboard Institute Festival in New York.  

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Marina holds a Master's Degree in Collaborative Piano from the Juilliard School, studied with Jonathan Feldman. She also holds professionals Studies Diploma in Piano Performance from Mannes College the New School for Music, an undergraduate diploma from Longy School of Music as well as a Bachelor of Music from Emerson College.

 

Her principal teachers were Maira Liliested, Wayman Chin, Victor Rosenbaum, Miyuki Hirakawa in solo piano, Diane Walsh, Marco Granados, and Terry King in chamber music.

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Currently based in New York City, she is a chamber music faculty and a staff pianist at The School for Strings and holds a staff pianist position at the Kaufman Music Center, the Juilliard School, and Mannes College the New School for Music preparatory division. She is a Yale Collaborative Piano Fellow for 2022-2023.