Yuri Marsuura - Homepage
Yuri Matsuura was born in Toyama, Japan and started playing the piano as well as composing from the age of three. Her greatest musical inspiration came from her father, Tommy Matsuura, a performing jazz guitarist and composer in Japan. She began teaching herself jazz by listening, transcribing, and playing with her father. That was how jazz performance and composition became an integral part of Yuri’s life.
In 2007, Yuri was awarded the World Tour Scholarship from Berklee College of Music. Before attending Berklee in Summer 2008 , she recorded piano for the jazz compilation album Roots, as part of a collaboration with her father Tommy Matsuura. This album is currently being distributed in Japan.
She graduated from Berklee College of Music with a major in Professional Music in May, 2012. Currently, she is playing in Alexey Sokolov’s band as a pianist. The band was selected as one of the winners of the Berklee A&R Showcase. As a composer, she has been actively writing for Ai & Yuri, a pop jazz duo consisting of herself and Ai Ichikawa(vo), an established singer from Japan. Yuri is also involved in writing music for worldwide renowned violinist Katherine Cash, as well as Katherin’s duo “N2K”, consisting of Juilliard alumni Norm Freeman and herself.
Yuri’s musical language covers a broad spectrum of musical genres and these include: classical, pop, funk, jazz, 2oth century and orchestral music. With her extensive performance and writing experience, Yuri experiments and blends musical themes and ideas to create her very own unique musical styles.