Ishigure Masayo

New York-based musician, specializing in traditional Japanese koto and shamisen music. Started to learn the koto at the age of five, and studied traditional Japanese music at Takasaki Art Center College. After studying with renowned koto master Sawai Tadao and his wife Kazue, in 1992 she traveled to the United States for a teaching job at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Relocated to New York City in 1996, where she still works as a performer and teaches at Columbia University.