Japanese pianist Tomomi Sato enjoys a diverse career as a performing artist, curator, and educator. A prizewinner of 2013 Seattle International Piano Competition, she has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as Los Angeles Bach Festival Orchestra, The Orchestra San Antonio, Bellflower Symphony Orchestra, and Concerto Chamber Orchestra. As a solo and collaborative recitalist, she has taken stages throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia.

Critically acclaimed for her wide range of repertoire knowledge and genre-crossing versatility on the keyboard, Tomomi’s festival credits include Accademia Dino Ciani, Music Academy of the West, Tanglewood Music Center, Centrum Chamber Music Workshop, and SongStudio. Her current engagements range from traditional recitals in concert halls to opera and musical theatre productions. She frequently toured as a rotating member of TAKE3, a classically-trained piano trio that crosses genres ranging from Bach to Elvis Presley.

As a curator and educator, Tomomi is deeply passionate about accessibility and cultural relevance of classical music, continuously seeking for innovative and immersive programming without sacrificing artistic integrity. In 2019, she collaborated with the Metropolis Ensemble to present programs by aspiring composers in the New York metropolitan area as part of their Blueprint series. She also serves as artist-faculty at Classical Music Institute’s Ascend!, an educational program that serves underprivileged neighborhoods in the San Antonio, TX, area during the summer. Her mission as an educator is to provide a sense of safety and trust for young musicians’ personal and musical growth, as music is an artform where one has to delve deeply into personal vulnerability and emotions.

Tomomi’s pedagogical specialty lies in the art of ensemble playing and coaching, and is currently a faculty member of Oklahoma State University as Teaching Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano. Having honed her coaching skills in studio lessons as a staff pianist at the Juilliard School, she had gained many teachers’ trust to serve as a coach for many young instrumentalists for pre-college students. In addition to being a highly in-demand private vocal and instrumental coach, she has given masterclasses at George Mason University alongside violinist Brian Hong on instrumental sonatas, and has been praised for her articulate explanation of ensemble playing techniques as a guest teaching artist for undergraduate accompanying courses at USC.

Tomomi holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Keyboard Collaborative Arts at USC Thornton School of Music, where she studied with Kevin Fitz-Gerald. As her elective fields, she studied piano performance with her long-term mentor Bernadene Blaha and jazz studies with David Arnay. She holds additional graduate degrees from USC and The Juilliard School; her past mentors include Dr. Mark Sullivan, Jonathan Feldman, Dr. Lydia Brown, Margo Garrett, and Brian Zeger. Bi-coastally based in Los Angeles and New York City, she enjoys the diverse food scene in both cities and learning about the aviation industry as she spends a good chunk of her free time in the sky.