MACHIKO OZAWA (violin/electric violin)
Machiko Ozawa gave her debut recital at the Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in February 2002 as a winner of Artist International Audition in 2001. She was a soloist with C. W. POST Chamber Orchestra as a first prize winner of its concerto competition in 2001. She was featured as a soloist with Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra under Jack Elliot at the Royce Hall in LA in 2000, as well as serving as a concertmaster with Jerry Goldsmith, one of the most popular composers of movie sound track in Hollywood.
Machiko began her musical studies playing piano at the age of three and at the age of eight began studying violin. Her first performance with the orchestra as a soloist is at Lino Hall in Tokyo with Tokyo New City Orchestra when she was fourteen years old. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Tokyo Gei-dai) under Takashi Shimizu and Chikashi Tanaka. After graduation she studied with Yfrah Neaman at Guildhall Music School in London, where she received a diploma. She has also received a Master’s degree at The Julliard School, where she studied with Masao Kawasaki, Lewis Kaplan, and has been coached by Jonathan Feldman, Earl Carless, Eugene Baker, and Joseph Kalichstein.
Although trained classically, Machiko now extends her musical range to a variety of music styles including jazz improvisation, world music and county music. As a founding member of JUSTADUO and Pablo Quartet, she frequently performs at the major venues in US and Japan.

MAKIA MATSUMURA (piano/composition)

A native of Tokyo, Japan, Makia Matsumura started piano and composition at the age of six. Her appearances as a pianist include the performances with some established orchestras such as the Hungary National Symphony, the Berlin Great Radio Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. As a composer, she has won numerous prizes and grants such as “First Hearing” competition by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Henry Mancini Institute, and Yamada Music Foundation. She has performed her original compositions extensively in and outside of Japan. Commissions of composing include a work for solo marimba work premiered at the Mallet Festival 2003 in Boston and a new work for Pablo Quartet in their 2003 tour.

She has also been active in film/TV scoring; her music has been heard on ABC News, Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), and many independent films and video productions.

She graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where she studied with Atsutada Otaka (composition) and Haruhi Hata (piano). In 1997 she moved to the US to further her studies at The Julliard School. Her teachers include Christopher Rouse, Samuel Adler, Edward Bilous, and Mari Kimura. Holding her master’s degree from Julliard, Makia currently resides in New York City, regularly commissioned new works for live performances and multimedia productions as well as serving as a professional accompanist for recitals and competitions.