“My musical journey has been always guided from life’s experience. The flower is beautiful because, by miraculous coincidence, it grows in a bed of myriads of debris. What ultimately turns into the flower is that essential recognition of the gift received. My desire as a musician is to be fully aware of the deep richness of that soil.”-Shoko Inoue

Shoko Inoue has lived in Victoria, BC, Canada since 2010 when she temporarily replaced the head of the piano department (Arthur Rowe) at the University of Victoria. She brings a considerable background of performance and teaching. She was a prize winner of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, first prize winner of the New York Chopin Competition and Contemporary music prize recipient of the Frinna Awerbuch Piano Competition in New York, where she made Carnegie Hall debut. Among her past notable appearances were at the Shostakovich Festival directed by Valery Gargiev at St. Cecilia’s Hall in Rome, a solo piano concert presented by the Embassy of Japan at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa, many broadcasted concerts at the Glenn Gould studio in Toronto. She has performed Prokofiev Concerto #2 with Oshawa Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marco Parisotti, Schnitke Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, Schumann Piano Concerto with Oakville Symphony Orchestra, Bartok 3rd Piano Concerto with Scarborough Symphony, Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto with Civic Orchestra of Victoria, Mozart Piano Concerto with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Bach Piano Concerto in F Minor conducted by Mark Skazinestsky. She also performed a trio concert in Florida with Pinchas Zuckerman and Amanda Forsyth. She has held solo recitals at Cambridge University in England, and has performed as a soloist at the Royal Theatre with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra performing Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto #2. She has also sought innovative ways to share her music through performances at shelters, jails, hospitals, etc, as well as through experimental film and other creative projects and tours. She holds an Artist Diploma and Certification (Cleveland Institute of Music) as well as a Masters degree in Performance from the University of Montreal. She studied with Sergei Babayan, John Perry and Mark Durand. Shoko loves communicating with the animal and natural world.