Yoko Okayasu - violist

Ms. Okayasu started playing the violin in Japan at the age of four. In 1997 she began her professional training under Professor Yuri Vladimir Ovcharek at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1998 she moved to California to attend the San Francicsco Conservatory of Music and pursue a degree in violin performance with Camilla Wicks. In 2000 she entered the Masters program in Chamber Music under the direction of Mark Sokol and Ian Swenson. She studied viola under Jodi Levitz, played in master classes with Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, Robert Mann, Bernard Greenhouse, and performed on the prestigious Chamber Music Masters concerts with Jorja Fleezanis and Menahem Pressler. She attended the Daniel Music Days Festival in 2001 and 2002 where she performed concerts throughout the Netherlands and received daily coachings from Joel Krosnick and members of the Daniel String Quartets.

Ms. Okayasu is an active chamber musician in the San Francisco area. She performed as part of the AVEDIS Chamber Music series at the Florence Gould Theater of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor with Paul Hearsh in 2002, and in the Rosewood Chamber Concert Series with Ian Swensen, Jodi Levitz and Jean-Michele Fonteneau in 2001.

In the summer of 2003, Ms. Okayasu joined in Satori Quartet, the graduate quartet in residence at Colorado University in Boulder under the direction of the Takacs Quartet. The Satori Quartet attended the Julliard Qquartet Sseminaer, the Takacs Qquartet Sseminaer, and the Norfolk Music Festival, where they studied under the Tokyo String Quartet. From 2003 to 2004 Ms. Okayasu held the post of principal viola with the Danish Radio Sinfonietta in Copenhagen.

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