Meet The Performers

Akiko Tsukamoto is an accomplished pianist, teacher and chamber musician. Originally from Japan, she graduated from the Toho Gakuen School of Music and moved to the U.S. in 1999 to study at the Yale University School of Music.

In addition to her performance career, she is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique a method that enhances ease and efficiency in movement. She runs a private piano studio in Watertown, helping students refine technique and musical expressivity with mindful body awareness.

Since 2013, Akiko has served as President of the Boston Charity Concert, leading initiatives that bring musicians together for meaningful causes. She is a member of the Massachusetts Music Teachers Association, Music Teachers National Association, and the American Association of Alexander Technique.

A prize winner at several competitions, Chihiro Larissa Tsukamoto has been invited to perform piano at the Haydn Hall of Esterházy Palace in Austria, the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Hungary, the Schumann House in Germany, and Jordan Hall in Boston. She studied piano at New England Conservatory, The Juilliard School, and Manhattan School of Music; percussion at Manhattan School of Music; and was a volunteer harpist at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Chihiro holds a B.A. from Columbia University, an M.A. from the University of Iceland, and a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University.

Chihiro has been an active participant in Boston Charity Concert since 2013. 

Masabumi Koinuma is a community musician who is active in collaborating with regional musicians on chamber and orchestral works. Born in Kanagawa, Japan, he began playing clarinet in university and quickly picked up the skills to play as a solo and orchestral player. Back when he was in Japan, he was a member of the Amadeus Orchester Tokyo, Blumen Philharmonie, Ensemble Meson, IBM Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan and the University of Tokyo Orchestra. As a soloist, he performed duet- concertino for clarinet and bassoon by Richard Strauss with Blumen Philharmonie in 1999. He continued his music activity after he came to the United States in 2005 for his work as an engineer.

He is currently a member of New Philharmonia Orchestra. He also enjoys performing collaborative pieces in chamber concerts. He studied clarinet under Kunio Hirabayashi. Masa joined Boston Charity Concert in 2017. 

Liam Hynes-Tawa is a cellist, guitarist, composer, and theorist who teaches music theory at Harvard University.

Liam’s research has mostly been either on Japanese music and music theory, with foci on school songs and enka; or on late Renaissance and early baroque music, including having written a PhD dissertation on the history of the Phrygian mode therein. Liam doesn’t get to perform music all that much these days anymore, and is very grateful to get to do so with the Boston Charity Concert! 

Yoko Schwarz resides and teaches piano in Lexington, Massachusetts. Born in Tokyo, Japan, she began playing piano at the age of three. After graduating from Toho Music School, she earned her B.A. degree at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique and Dance de Paris. Schwarz has performed in nationally broadcast festivals in the United States, Europe and Japan, including the Aspen Music Festival, the William Kapell, Lugano, Delemont, Noyer-sur-Serein, the KMF Music Festival and the International Rachmaninoff Musical Festival. Today, she regularly accompanies local musicians, performs in recitals, and is a member of the Lexington Music Club and New England Piano Teachers’ Association.

Yoko has been a member of BCC since 2013. 

Sanae Koinuma performs as a soloist, accompanist, and collaborator in different chamber ensembles. She performs at a variety of concerts including a faculty recital at Longy School of Music of Bard College. She passionately teaches students at a private studio in Lexington, teaching about 25 students. She is a member of Massachusetts Teachers National Association, Massachusetts Music Teachers Association. Her students have received awards of recognition in many competitions.

Currently, she is a trainee of Andover Educations, studying body mapping for musicians. She received a Master’s degree in Music from Longy School of Music in Boston where she studied with Victor Rosenbaum and Robert Merfeld. She worked with Dr. Margaret Evans at Meredith College in North Carolina. She received a Bachelor's degree in Music from Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo where Kyoko Okayama coaches.

Kay Tsukamoto is a pianist and violinist based in Boston. She has performed at the Mildred P. Freiberg Piano Festival and the Massachusetts Music Teachers Association Judged Festival. In the 2018 MMTA Judged Festival they were awarded first place. Tsukamoto received a B.A. in East Asian Studies,  Music and Ethnomusicology at Mount Holyoke College. She was a member of the Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra. Kay studied violin with Ariel Horowitz, Patrick Shaughnessy, and Nurit Pacht.

Kay has been an active participant in Boston Charity Concert since 2013.