Megumi Masaki

Since 2006, Masaki has been a member of the piano faculty[2] at the School of Music at Brandon University in Brandon, MB, Canada, and she was made a full professor in 2014. Notable students include Everett Hopfner (2013 winner, Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition), George Waddell (Research Associate in Performance Science at the Royal College of Music London, UK), Xiaoni Shen (2nd place winner of the 2016 American Protégé International Piano & Strings competition) and Andreas Eggertsberger (Austrian pianist). In 2007 Masaki founded the educational outreach project "Masaki's Rising Stars of Brandon University" in partnership with rural arts associations, schools, and personal care homes. The project offers performances and workshops to communities where interaction with music is limited, simultaneously providing Masaki's students with research opportunities as well as touring and performance experience. Masaki received the Brandon University Alumni Association's Award for Excellence in Teaching[3] in 2010.

In addition to piano instruction and pedagogy, Masaki directs Brandon University School of Music's New Music Ensemble[4] and its New Music Festival. In 2019, in collaboration with Brandon University Indigenous Peoples' Centre Knowledge Keeper Barb Blind, Masaki founded the BU Indigenous New Music Festival,[5] a two-day festival featuring a complete program of contemporary classical music by Indigenous composers.

Masaki is also on faculty at the Casalmaggiore International Festival,[6] a student-focused solo and chamber music summer school and festival in Casalmaggiore, Italy; the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity[7] in Banff, AB, Canada; and Chetham's International Piano Summer School[8] in Manchester, UK. As the Artistic Director of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition[9] in Brandon, MB, Masaki has championed the competition's focus on Canadian and contemporary music, and led in the commissioning of numerous new Canadian works. In 2016, she was a Musician in Residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, specializing in interactive electronics and video and serving as an installations mentor.

Megumi Masaki performing Danny's Etudes from Nicole Lizée's Kubrick Etudes, Urumqi, China. 15 Oct 2016

With the composer and computer music specialists Keith Hamel, Masaki has collaborated on a research project to develop a three-dimensional digitally augmented keyboard system at the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS) Sound Studio and School of Music at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. With Robert (Bob) Pritchard, she has worked to develop the Sleeve/Hand Responsive User Garment (SHRUG),[10] a project exploring the use of e-textile sensors and active infrared tracking to create new interactive live performance tools and environments.

Masaki is in demand as a speaker and guest lecturer, specializing in the area of music performance anxiety and optimal performance. She has presented on these subjects at numerous conferences, including the International Symposium on Performance Science: ISPS 2011,[11] in Toronto; the International European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) Conference 2010 and the International Society for the Study of Tension in Performance Forum[12] (ISSTIP) 2010, both in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

As a guest professor, she has conducted masterclasses and lecture recitals in many universities and academic institutions across Canada, the USA, Europe, and Asia on subjects such as contemporary performance practices, interactive piano and computer music in live performance, cross-cultural exchange and new music trends, and gesture and hand-tracking software applications in live interactive performance.

Masaki is a member of the Advisory Council for the Canadian Music Centre's Prairie Regional Office[13] and the board of the Canadian New Music Network.[14] She has served as a jury member for the Manitoba Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council, and is an academy delegate for the Canadian Academy for the Recording Arts and Sciences (the JUNO Awards).

Masaki is a prolific performer, and frequently collaborates with composers, visual artists, writers, computer scientists, and choreographers on interdisciplinary projects involving new technologies. She is a member of the Windsor, ON performance collective Noiseborder Ensemble,[15] and of Slingshot-Kidõ,[16] an interdisciplinary collective based at the University of Hartford, CT. With Noiseborder Ensemble she has presented more than twenty original multimedia pieces featuring a combination of acoustic and electric instruments with live processing and mixing of sound and video, and she is active in the ensemble's SSHRC-funded research project entitled "Integrating Sound and Image in Multimedia Performance."

Megumi Masaki in performance, International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM).

Masaki has premiered over ninety works for piano, chamber ensembles, and multimedia. As a solo artist she has commissioned pieces from notable Canadian composers such as Nicole Lizée (Kubrick Etudes for piano and glitch (soundtrack and film); Hitchcock Etudes[17] [18]for solo piano and film, chosen to represent Canada at the ISCM World Music Days in Poland, 2014), Brent Lee (Immaterial Los Angeles for solo piano; Agency and Structure for piano and fixed video; Ferrovia for piano and interactive video (with Sigi Torinus, visual artist[19])), Keith Hamel (Touch for piano and live electronics[20]; Corona[21] for piano, interactive electronics and interactive visuals; Piano Games for piano and new computer game), and T. Patrick Carrabré (Orpheus Drones for piano and electronics; Orpheus (2) for piano, electronics and poetry by Margaret Atwood; Orpheus (1) for piano, toy piano, Roli keyboard, video, and text by Margaret Atwood). As a chamber musician she has collaborated with the Penderecki String Quartet, the Gewandhaus Orchestra soloists, Shauna Rolston, and Koh Gabriel Kameda, among many others. She has concertized across North America, Europe, and Asia, including such venues as the National Arts Centre Ottawa, London's Royal College of Music, the Dark Music Days Festival in Reykjavik, IS, and Coronet Concert Hall in Okazaki, JP.

A devotée of the music of Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, Masaki has done much to advance the legacy of this Manitoba-based composer, including recording Eckhardt-Gramatté's piano compositions and her works for violin and piano duo (with Oleg Pokhanovski), publishing a critical performance edition of the composer's Piano Caprices, and appearing on film as a historical researcher and pianist in the film “Appassionata: The Extraordinary Life and Works of Eckhardt-Gramatté”, produced by Paula Kelly.[22]