Heather Tuach & Yoko Misumi
Biographie Heather Tuach & Yoko Misumi
Heather Tuach
Canadian cellist Heather Tuach is a member of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet. Highlights with the FSQ include concerts at Kings Place, Wigmore Hall and Conway Hall (London), performances at the Ryedale Festival (North Yorkshire), cruises on the Aegean Sea, live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune,’ and residencies at the University of St Andrews (Scotland), Cambridge University (England) and Bucknell University (Pennsylvania). Since Heather joined the FSQ, it has toured throughout Britain as well as Canada, USA, Italy, France, Germany, Slovenia, Denmark and South Africa. The FSQ has made several recordings of contemporary music including the complete quartets of John Ramsay and a classical-jazz fusion album of music by Uwe Steinmetz called Absolutely! (both for Divine Art /Metier Records).
Away from the FSQ and her collaboration with Patil Harboyan, Heather pursues a range of interests. She plays in the Roskell Piano Trio. She has appeared as a soloist at the York Late Music Festival and Ryedale Festival (England), the Festival de l’Abbaye du Pin (France) and on Martin Randall Travel’s ‘Bach Journey’ (Germany). Heather was the soloist in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Academy of St. Olave’s Orchestra (York) and Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. In her home province of Newfoundland, she has given recitals at the Tuckamore Music Festival and Memorial University of Newfoundland (St. John’s) and performed in numerous concerts in her hometown of Corner Brook, where she is the artistic director of the Wintertide Music Festival. www.wintertidefestival.com
Heather first studied cello at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She then attended McGill University (Montréal), where she was awarded a Master of Music. Following this, she went on to study for a year at the International Menuhin Music Academy (Switzerland). Finally, she attended Stony Brook University (New York), where she was awarded a Doctorate in Musical Arts in 2009. Her cello professors have included Colin Carr, Moray Welsh and Antonio Lysy and chamber music coaches have included Marcel Saint-Cyr and the members of the Emerson Quartet. Heather’s cello was made by the Yorkshire luthier Roger Hansell in 1993.
Yoko Misumi
was born in Kyoto, Japan. Yoko started learning piano aged three with her mother, showing talent and musicianship at an early age. Yoko studied at Kyoto Music Senior School before moving to London in 1998 to study under Russian pedagogue Nina Sereda, a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus at Trinity College of Music. Encountering acclaimed Cypriot-British pianist, Martino Tirimo led her to achieve top prizes in competitions, and concerto debuts.
In 2006, along with Lana Trotovšek and Stjepan Hauser, Yoko formed the Greenwich Trio. With Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio as mentor, they performed throughout Europe and the USA and released several CDs on Meridian Records.
Yoko completed her Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma at Guildhall School of Music, with awarded scholarships. Since then, she has been a keen lieder accompanist and chamber musician.
She has collaborated with numerous artists and conductors including Leslie Craven, Barry Wordsworth, James Judd, Boris Bizjak, Marko Zupan, Colin Scobie, Alasdair Beatson and Benjamin Appl. Her past mentors include Kazuyo Baba, Shin Takekoshi, Eugene Asti, Caroline Palmer, Gordon Back and Stephen Kovacevich. Yoko has recorded for Linn Records, Meridian Records, Hedone Records and Denmore Records. She received 5-star reviews for both “Romantic Trios” with Stjepan Hauser and Leslie Craven; and Brahms Trios volume 1 with the Greenwich Trio. “Romantic Trios” was also nominated for the BBC Music Magazine Chamber Awards.
