CMNW: FREE Community Recital with the Lyon-Sasaki Duo

• Mika Sasaki, piano
• Mitch Lyon, cello

Pianist Mika Sasaki is back for her final community residency with Chamber Music Northwest—and NEW this year, she will be joined by cellist Mitch Lyon. The Lyon-Sasaki Duo will be spending a week working with community partners, and their residency will conclude with a FREE community recital!

About Lyon-Sasaki Duo

Cellist Mitchell Lyon and pianist Mika Sasaki met in 2017 at the Charles Ives Chamber Music Intensive in Danbury, C.T., where they both taught and performed as Artist Faculty. They found themselves equally passionate about chamber music, community engagement, and education, and have since become close collaborators on a variety of projects, from chamber music performances of traditional, contemporary, and original repertoire for cello and piano, to educational workshops.

Both alumni of The Juilliard School, Mitchell and Mika have performed in a variety of concert halls and intimate spaces around the world, and have worked regularly with students and community members of all ages in New York City as teaching artists for the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, respectively, and Juilliard.

As individuals, they have established themselves as active and versatile performers and educators in the city and beyond. Mitchell performs regularly in Lincoln Center and is a founding member of Empire Wild, a crossover trio of two cellos and voice/piano/percussion. His festival appearances include the Woodlands, Norfolk, Fontainebleau, Meadowmount, and Valley of the Moon, among others. Mika recently completed her doctoral degree at Juilliard, where she teaches keyboard studies and piano in the College and Evening Divisions, respectively, and tours frequently as a member of Ensemble Mélange. Her summer festival appearances include the Nord Anglia Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard, pianoSonoma, Music@Menlo, Chigiana, Tanglewood, Taos, Yellow Barn, and Aspen.

Their artistic vision as a duo is to meet new audiences and help listeners make personal connections with different kinds of music.

About Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW)

Chamber Music Northwest serves more than 50,000 people annually in Oregon and SW Washington with exceptional chamber music through over 100 events annually, including our flagship Summer Festival, year-round concerts, community activities, educational programs, broadcasts, and innovative collaborations with other arts groups. CMNW is the only chamber music festival of its kind in the Northwest and one of the most diverse classical music experiences in the nation, virtually unparalleled in comparable communities.

Chamber Music Northwest's mission is to inspire our community through concerts and events celebrating the richness and diversity of chamber music, performed by artists of the highest caliber, presenting our community with exceptional opportunities for enjoyment, education, and reflection.

About Mika Sasaki, piano

Praised as a "superb interpreter" (Fanfare) and for her "virtuosity…and sparkling sound" (Times Argus), pianist Mika Sasaki enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has performed across the U.S. and in the U.K., Italy, Japan, and Switzerland, appearing in venues such as the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the Sinfonia of Cambridge, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and more recently, with the InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York, performing Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto.

A passionate chamber musician, Mika has performed with the Manhattan Chamber Players, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as in festivals such as Tanglewood, Music@Menlo, Chigiana, Yellow Barn, Aspen, and Taos. She is a member of Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and the powerhouse sextet, Ensemble Mélange. Dedicated to education and audience engagement, she has presented interactive performances in New York City and across the country, including residencies at String Theory and Chamber Music Northwest. She is an alumna of Peabody (B.M., M.M.), Carnegie Hall's Ensemble Connect, and Juilliard (D.M.A.).

Based in New York City, Mika is a faculty member at The Juilliard School, where she teaches keyboard skills, piano, and chamber music in the College, Pre-College, and Extension Divisions. When not at the piano, she can be found tending to her houseplants, cooking, or chasing after her cat.

About Mitch Lyon, cello

Cellist Mitchell Lyon approaches music making with a zeal for harnessing the unique power of musical experience. Mitch is a founding member of Empire Wild, a genre-bending crossover trio and Ambassador Prize Winner of the 2020 Concert Artist Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. Last season the trio delighted audiences with their signature mix of original songwriting and unique arrangements at venues across the country including a stop at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center and a concert on the Harriman-Jewell concert series in Kansas City as well as an extensive midwest tour.

Passionate about community engagement and education, Mitch has been on the Teaching Artist Faculty of the New York Philharmonic since 2014, visiting schools across all five boroughs of NYC and scripting and performing interactive concerts for thousands of students. He frequently leads workshops for students of all ages and abilities, most recently at The Juilliard School Extension Division and Peabody Preparatory Institute.

Mitch regularly spends summers as an artist faculty member at the Preucil School of Music and the Charles Ives Music Festival at WCYO. In past summers, Mitch has performed at Caroga Lake, Fontainebleau, Finchcocks, and Norfolk. An alumnus of Juilliard (B.M., M.M.), Mitch’s primary teachers have included Bonnie Hampton and Timothy Eddy along with masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Mark Kosower, and Andres Diaz. Away from the cello, he can be found cooking, reading something geeky, or plotting his next hike.